Pokémon: The PAL Chronicles
by BookPrincess28
Summary: Ash has been hurt to hear what they really thought of him. Out of anger, he accidentally activated his aura that teleported him to an entirely new region: PAL. Four Years later, he became the Champion and is invited to a tournament with his own Elites. His life makes a turnaround from there and he must solve the mysteries that are putting everyone in danger, before it's too late.
1. The PAL Elite Four and its Champion

**BP: I've read plenty of betrayal fics from Pokémon, so I'd thought I'd try one too. I thought since I wrote one for Prince Of Tennis, why not write one for Pokémon too?**

**Warning: Hunter x Hunter reference, Hunger Games references, I also didn't include the Kalos characters because I don't know them very well. Most information posted is taken from Bulbapedia. So Kalos doesn't exist in this fic. **

**Shout out to mysterypink98, my real life best friend, for helping me out! **

Have you guys ever heard of the PAL region?

PAL stand for Pokémon Awakens Love. It's a region that supports all five regions known to the Pokémon World. The general environment a paradise for Pokémon; hence the name. If a trainer is caught abusing Pokémon within this region, it's an immediate death sentence, as PAL takes the welfare of Pokémon, whether wild or trainer, very seriously.

With this in mind, pollution is also considered a crime here. If you are caught tainting the environment in anyway, you'll be sent to jail.

Trainers are expected to do everything they can to protect their own Pokémon, which is why all the trainers living in PAL know how to fight in one way or another without their Pokémon. PAL contains all the Pokémon in the six regions, and also, sometimes, even Legandaries flock here to relax in this paradise.

Let's not forget those that protect the PAL. Officer Jennies around the region are nothing compared to them. They are called "Hunters", people that have proven themselves through rigorous examination to be an elite member of humanity. If you can pass the Hunter Exam, or "Exam from Hell" as PAL people may call it (since out of 1,200 applicants, only about 10 pass and get their license, and some actually died in the Exam), you have many benefits, such as 95% of all public facilities can be used at no cost. Furthermore, all such services are provided at first class, unrivalled freedom to travel around the regions, almost no legal responsibility for murder, and so much more.

Most people from the G-Men members are actually Hunters provided by PAL Government herself, which is why they are considered formidable.

As for contests, instead of winning five Ribbons and participating in the Grand Festival for the Ribbon Cup, there are two types of contests: Normal and Super. Normal contests are also split into five categories: Cool, Beauty, Smart, Tough and Cute. There are also four ranks: Normal, Super, Hyper and Master.

As for Super Contests, It is also split into the five categories like the normal contests, but the rankings are as follows: Normal, Great, Ultra and Master. You need to win ribbons from Normal rank from a certain category in order to enter the next rank's contest in the same category. To be a Top Coordinator, once needs to win Master Rank in at least one category for either contest type. **(A/N: It's just like in the games. Since Hoenn and Sinnoh didn't have anything like that in the anime, I figured I put both here in this region, since it's considered special)**

It's also the most difficult region to be a Champion as the Elite Four of the PAL is also something else altogether. The PAL Elite Four is well-known to have the only members that specialize in two types instead of just one. Each member of the Elite Four are also Hunters and has unique abilities that make the stand out among the other trainers. No one could even get past the first member of the Elite Four.

Only one person has managed to defeat all four members and be crowned Champion.

And that is Ashura Red Satoshi Ketchum, better known as Ash Ketchum.

Said 19 year old boy was currently sitting at the rooftop of the PAL Plateau; home to the PAL Elite Four and its Champion. With him was a certain Pikachu, sitting on his shoulder and trying to comfort him by nuzzling his cheek and licking it as well. Ash smiled a little and patted his Pikachu, who let out a coo of contentment.

A Lucario was with him as well, sitting next to him, silently giving his support.

"**Beautiful night, isn't it, Master?"** Lucario tried to break the silence by making small talk.

"Yeah." Ash nodded.

Lucario frowned. **"Don't tell me you're still thinking about the incident four years ago."**

Ash frowned, as he thought back on the events four years ago.

Flashback (Four years ago)

_Ash was on his way home to Pallet Town, with his famous Pikachu after the Unova League. He made it to the Final Eight, but got knocked out by Cameron's Lucario. _

"_Can't wait to see mum! Right Pikachu?" He asked his long-time partner and best friend. _

"_Pi Pikachu!" Pikachu replied happily. _

_Ash smiled at Pikachu, as his house was in sight. He was about to open the door to announce his presence, when he heard voices. He furrowed his brow in confusion, as he recognized those voices. _

_Brock Slate, former gym leader of Pewter City, Misty Waterflower, Cerulean City Gym Leader, May Maple, a Pokémon Co-ordinator from Hoenn, Max Maple, younger brother of May, Dawn Berlitz, Co-ordinator of Sinnoh and daughter of Johanna Berlitz, a former Top Co-ordinator, Iris, a girl who dreamed to be a Dragon Master someday, Cilan, one of the three Gym Leaders in the Striaton Gym and A-Class Connoisseur. His mother was in as well. Wait, was that Trip's voice? Why would he be here as well?_

'_Now why would they all be here at this moment?' Ash thought. They were supposed to be off on their own journey chasing their own dreams, not be in Pallet Town discussing whatever it is. He crept closer to listen to their conversation._

_He immediately wished he hadn't done that. _

"_Seriously? He got into the Top Eight again?" Misty sneered. "He just wouldn't accept that he would never be the top, would he?" _

"_I agree. He's always using that rat during the battles that led to his loss." Brock said. "I mean to him, friendships are more important than power."_

"_Well, he's an idiot if he can win by just pure friendship." Iris said scathingly. "He doesn't know you have to have power as well!"_

"_He was a complete idiot to use Pikachu against powerhouses like that Latios in the Sinnoh League, although he did defeat that Latios." Dawn added in. "No wonder he lost all the Leagues he participated."_

"_Well, I agree, and he's my son. Should we just tell him to give up?" His mother sighed. _

"_Yeah, he'll always be that little kid who would never win against any of us." Iris said. "Perhaps, Mrs. Ketchum, he might stay home with you, which is what you want right?"_

"_Yeah, he's always out chasing a dream that is impossible to fulfil. I want him home for once." said Mrs. Ketchum._

"_So, when he gets home, let's tell him to give up on his dreams!" Trip said. The others made noises of agreement. _

_Although by this time, Ash is shaking in sadness, betrayal, anger and hurt, he still held back Pikachu as it wanted to just charge in and electrocute them on the spot for saying things like that to his best friend. _

"_**Let me at them, Ash!"**__ Pikachu hissed. __**"I want to make them suffer for what they said."**_

_Ash gave a strange smile on his lips, although his tears have made its appearance. "I think I got a better idea." He turned and ran to Professor Oak's laboratory, clutching to a struggling Pikachu tightly to make sure he doesn't do anything rash._

"_Ash, my boy! How have you…" he trailed off in shock as he saw the look on Ash's face and the angry Pikachu. _

"_Ash, are you alright?" Gary asked from behind Professor Oak. Tracey nodded his concern_

_Ash told the Oaks and Tracey everything he heard, and they were shocked. Tracey even dropped his sketchbook in shock._

"_How could they?" Tracey hissed. "How could they say such a thing?"_

_Ash grimaced. "I know. That's why I'm going to get away and train- by myself with all my Pokémon." _

_Professor Oak smiled. "I'll arrange that." _

_He took out what looked like a plain old watch. "It may look like a watch, but it has unlimited functions. It can call people, send messages, gives you information of any Pokémon that is scanned from all regions, gives you a map of where you are and how to get to your desired destination, it also has a list of moves the Pokémon you scan can learn, and also allows you to carry all your Pokémon at once. It's called the CommuniDex. Once you put it on, it's keyed to your DNA so only you can take it off. Not even someone disguised as you would be able to take it off. Also, it is waterproof so you can keep it on at all times even when you shower."_

"_Thanks, Professor Oak." Ash gave a small smile. _

"_Ash, you have no idea what you are capable of." said Gary. "Go, and make sure to come back and show us what you're made of." This is one of the rare times he didn't say "Ashy-boy". _

_Tracey smiled. "Yes, I know you can do it." _

_Ash smiled, took all his Pokémon and left the lab._

_He took out a fish lure bait given by Misty and one half of the Terracotta Ribbon won at a contest with May._

"_I'm never going back. The past is the past." Ash declared, throwing the bait towards one side, and the Ribbon towards another. _

_During his anger, he did not know that his aura was accumulating, and it chose now to activate._

_He unknowingly teleported, and landed in an unknown place._

_This place was later known as the region PAL._

End Flashback

"**Master….MASTER!"** Lucario hit Ash over the head. Ash could understand what his Pokémon is saying even without telepathy as he had mastered how to use aura during those three years. It's also useful in combat. However, this isn't unusual, as all Elite members knew how to use aura and understand Pokéspeech.

"Oww…what?" he groaned.

"You're spacing out again." Lucario said. He looked up to see Pikachu frowning at him as well.

"**You know, Ash, if you're thinking about the betrayal, at least some of their Pokémon didn't agree and abandoned their masters just for you. As well as the Legendries that followed you on your quest." **Pikachu reminded him. **"Not to mention our old friends somehow managed to find us here, and agreed to join back here with us." **

He remembered that dream. It was just right after one of his Elite members found him and took him in.

Flashback (or Dream flashback)

"_Where am I?" Ash asked, looking around at what looked like a royal ballroom with its lavish decorations._

"_Welcome, Chosen One." said a voice. He turned to see a white equine resembling a centaur with a grey, vertically-striated underside. The striated pattern has similar recurrences on the underside of its mane, tail, and face. Its four pointed feet are tipped with gold hooves._

"_Arceus!" He cried out._

_Arceus smiled. "Yes, Chosen One." One by one, the other Legendries appeared before him. The Legendary Bird trio, the Mew duo, the Legendary Beasts trio, the Tower Duo, Celebi, the four Regis, the Eon duo, the Weather Trio, Jirachi, Deoxys, the Lake Guardians, the Creation Trio, the Lunar Duo, Manaphy, Heatran, Shaymin, Victini, the Swords of Justice, the Forces of Nature, the Tao Trio, Meloetta, Genesect, Mortality Duo, Zygarde, and finally, Diancie. _

"_Hi, Ash!" Latias flew over to him, and nuzzled him. Too bad Shaymin, Meloetta, Victini, Manaphy, Celebi and Mew had the same idea, and tackled him to the floor hugging him. _

"_Hi, Ash!" they chirped in unison. "Long time no see!" _

"_Hey, you guys." Ash smiled at them. "What's going on?"_

"_We've been watching you." said Darkrai. "After the betrayal by your friends, we decided it's time for us to step in to help, to thank you for what you have done for us." _

"_Saving us selflessly, putting your lives just for us…" Shaymin said. _

_Meloetta nodded. "Which is why we have decided to thank you for what you done. All of us. We have decided to support you in whatever you decide to do."_

"_After seeing what your so-called friends did, we think it' the least we could do." said Mewtwo._

"_Some of us have decided to join you in your quest, Ash." said Mew. "To thank you for all you have done."_

"_What?" Ash exclaimed. "But if you join up with me, it's dangerous. Who knows what those villainous teams such as Team Rocket would do if they find out you are with me? It sounds great and all, but you have duties to do, and I don't want it to be interrupted just for me. And you might have to participate in battles if you join with me. And I'm not going to let those villainous teams get their hands on you a second time!"_

_The Legendries were astounded, as they knew he was really and truly trying to protect them from unwanted attention and forced control. _

"_We understand, Chosen One." said Rayquaza. "But we want to travel the world, and who better than with you?" _

"_Since you treat Pokémon as friends, and you did us an amazing favour for all of us." said Celebi. _

"_Yeah, since you revived me from the Soul Dew using your aura, it has been absorbed in your body so it doesn't need guarding anymore." Latios finally spoke up. _

"_I even told Bianca and Lorenzo I'm going with you to see the world, and they agreed." said Latias._

"_I even called your old Pokémon so that they'll come back to you." said Darkrai._

_Ash knew he lost the battle, seeing he saw what the Pokémon were willing to do to follow him._

"_For those who want to come, you can come, but I can't promise a pain-free journey, but I promise, I will do my best to protect all of you, and make sure I'll prove to everyone I'm a good trainer, and take responsibilities for my actions." He smiled at them. The Legendries cheered at this. _

"_Then, the ones joining you will be Victini, Manaphy, Mew, Mewtwo Lugia, Ho-oh, Shaymin, Meloetta, Latias and Latios, Darkrai, Zekrom, Celebi, Jirachi, Giratina, Palkia and finally, Dialga." said Arceus. "You'll find their Pokeballs at your bedside once you wake up, along with your old friends." _

"_Remember, Ash, we'll always be looking out for you."_

(End (dream) Flashback)

Ash was snapped out of his reverie when Pikachu nudged him, and pointed to a Pidgeot carrying a mail.

"Ah…Opps." He took the letter and read it.

_Dear Red Satoshi, _

_There is a tournament coming up called the Pokémon World Championship. It is held in the PAL Battle Arena to decide who the best among the best is, and I believe you are more than capable of winning the tournament. Your invitation has been attached to this message. Please hand your invitation in three days' time to the PAL Pokémon Centre near the Battle Arena if you wish to participate._

_Yours sincerely, _

_Phlox DeLaurentis _

_Manager of the PAL Elite Four_

_P.S: Glad to know you're still alive, Ash. You were incredibly hard to track down. Congrats on being the PAL Champion, and hope to see you there. By the way, all your so-called friends are there so stay calm and don't give in to your hate –Scott._

_P.P.S: You better show up to the tournament or else I'm going to sic my men on you, and drag you there. You must participate in this tournament. Don't let those traitors get to you. –Charles Goodshow. _

_P.P.P.S: You better arrive by tomorrow morning. You and your Elite are going to organize the opening ceremonies. I'll drag you there myself with Charles if you don't show up. –Phlox. _

Lucario, who has been looking over his shoulder to read the letter, broke the silence by asking, **"So are you going?"** he asked.

Ash nodded. "Of course! But first…" He sent a print message to his four Elites via his CommuniDex, who were out doing god-knows-what.

* * *

><p>"Nothing like a late night swim to take my mind off things." A boy with black hair and amber eyes commented. He dived off the dive board that is 10 meters above the swimming pool, and somersaulted into the pool, executing a beautiful jack-knife.<p>

This is Jude Harrison, a Water/Dark Specialist, and the first member of the Elite. He is a Sea Hunter, whose job is to hunt in seas for animals and treasures. He is the best at swimming among the four of them. He is currently wearing swimming trunks.

Just as he swam up to the surface, his CommuniDex rang, signalling a new message. Jude groaned, and pressed a button to read the message. He widened his eyes at the message.

"Change of plans. I'm going back to the Plateau." He told himself, as he dried himself, got dressed in his standard outfit which consists of blue shirt with black jacket and a black jeans and called out his Mantine. "Mantine, we're going back to the Plateau." Mantine nodded, and they shot off towards the Plateau.

* * *

><p>A girl with black hair with hot pink highlights, black eyes as dark as midnight, and wearing her usual outfit- red top with a magenta jacket and a white and pink skirt, with hot pink boots was trying to crack a mysterious case where two boys went missing, and their backpacks and Pokémon were left behind. She spun her pen, and crossed out another locations where she had searched earlier today.<p>

She is Rosaline Pyra, the second member challengers have to face in the Elite, the Fire/Psychic specialist of the Elite Four. She is a Crime Hunter, whose job is to crack mysterious cases around the world.

"I think I'll look into the places where Psychic powers are blocked." She said. "If they were kidnapped, a kidnapper would try to take them somewhere where Psychics can't locate them. Maybe I'll ask Paku to help with this one."

Just then, her CommuniDex rang, and she read the print message sent by Ash.

"Alright, I'll ask her later. For now, I'll go back to the Plateau." With that, she summoned her Shiny Moltres, and flew back to the Plateau.

* * *

><p>"Alright, let's see." Another boy, a year or two older than Ash, was assembling what looked like machine parts together. He had brown hair and baby blue eyes. He was wearing a simple white T-shirt with a light blue vest, with dark brown jeans. He was also wearing a belt which kept his standard six Pokeballs. "If I put these together, the electrical current would flow continuously without burning out the minuscule copper wire." He used a drill to put the said machine parts in place.<p>

This is Philip Robinson, a Steel/Electric Specialist, and the third member of the Elite. He is great at technology and inventing things, which is why most people call him "Genius Inventor". He was the one that helped replicate the CommuniDex for the other members of the Elite at Ash's request. He is an Information Hunter, whose job is to go to great lengths to uncover rare or hidden bits of information. Common activities for Information Hunters include searching for rare books, hacking to retrieve protected data, and tracking down people who know desired facts.

"All done!" He said happily, before his CommuniDex rang.

He opened the message, and widened his eyes.

"Ok, back to the Plateau I go!" He summoned his Skarmory and flew towards the Plateau.

* * *

><p>A girl, who looked like she is in her late teens or early twenties, was chasing down a man. The man is running frantically for his life. He suddenly screeched to a stop as he ran into a dead end in a dark alley, and knew he was cornered.<p>

"S-Spare me." He stuttered.

The girl stepped out of the shadows, allowing the moonlight to illuminate her features. She had ebony black hair and amethyst eyes and high cheekbones. Her soft pink lips were curled up in disdain, and her eyes were currently emotionless.

She is Pakura Ameyuri, the Ice/Fairy Specialist and the Leader of the Elite. She is currently wearing an outfit that is entirely black to allow her to hide in the shadows, and clutching to a knife. She is a Blacklist Hunter, her job is to track down dangerous and wanted criminals, and kill them if she must.

"Now why should I spare you?" she sneered. "You abuse Pokémon and even try to escape the law. Why do you think they sent me after you? I'm supposed to kill you."

The man lunged at her, and she side stepped him, and pinned him against the wall.

"Enjoy your time in hell." She smirked, before plunging her knife in his chest. She watched impassively as he slowly expired.

She shook her head as she cleaned her knife with a cloth. "They really don't remember I never miss my target."

Her CommuniDex rang, and when she saw the message, she summoned her Togekiss and flew towards the Plateau.

* * *

><p>"Alright, everyone, I got an invite to the Pokémon World Championships." Ash was addressing his Pokémon. His old Pokémon consists of Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard, Meganium, Fereligator, Blastoise, Typhlosion, Snorlax, Kingler, Muk, Heracross, Noctowl, Crawdaunt, Swellow, Pidgeot, Butterfree, Glalie, Garchomp, Seperior, Scrafty, Lapras, Gengar, Sceptile, Torterra, Emboar, Samurott, Krookodile, Leavanny, Gigalith, Seismitoad, Infernape, Floatzel, Unfezant, Gliscor, and Tauros.<p>

And then, of course, there are his Legendries.

There's also the new Pokémon he caught (read: he saved them, and they followed him until he agreed to catch them). Gardevior, Lucario, Zororak, all the Eeveelutions, Roserade, Spiritomb, Mismagius, Gyarados, Salamence, Togekiss, Xatu.

And then there's the defected Pokémon, who got attached to his Elite members as they spent time with them. May's Skitty, Blaziken, Iris' Axew and Emolga, Dawn's Pachirisu, Piplup and Buneary, and Misty's Corsola. Skitty, Glaceon, and Axew went to Pakura, Pachirisu and Emolga went to Phillip, Piplup and Corsola went to Jude, and Blaziken went to Rosaline. He kept Buneary, because it wants to be by Pikachu's side.

Flashback

"_Hey Ash." Mewtwo said, interrupting his aura training. _

"_What is it, Mewtwo?" Ash sighed, deactivating his Aura Levitation and landing on the ground. _

"_Do you remember May's Skitty, Blaziken, Glaceon, Iris' Axew and Emolga, Dawn's Pachirisu, Piplup and Buneary, and Misty's Corsola?" he asked. Ash darkened at the mention of his former friends' names. _

"_What about them?" he asked evenly, trying not to show his anger. _

"_Well, it seems like they do not agree with what the traitors said, and wished to join you and your friends in your quest when I told them your current location."_

"_Yeah, sure." Ash said sarcastically. "And why would I believe them?"_

_Mewtwo silently handed him the remains of the Pokeballs. "They smashed these themselves, saying they do not want to be with their trainers anymore."_

_Ash knew Mewtwo is not lying, since he's a Legendary Psychic Pokemon and know what Pokémon are actually thinking._

"_Fine, bring them in." he said. "I'll see what they have to say."_

_When he teleported back to him, the Pokémon immediately got him into a group hug._

"_**Ash! It's good to see you again!" **__Skitty said. __**"I finally can see you again, after enduring that traitor of a trainer! We've been waiting and waiting for you to come and take us away!"**_

"_**Yeah, she's so arrogant she hasn't been winning any Grand festival, and we're tired of her boasting she'll be upgraded the Queen of Hoenn!" **__Glaceon remarked. __**"Why didn't the day care worker give my egg to you?"**_

"_**That wanabe of a Water Master is so narrow-minded. Strength doesn't come from how powerful a Pokémon is, it comes from the trainer's heart!" **__Corsola said. _

"_**I'm not going to get Pikachu out of my grasp this time!" **__Buneary declared. __**"He's more important to me than Dawn!" **_

"_**Yeah I know, I'm not going to hear Iris saying for the millionth time how she'll be better than Lance someday." **__Axew rolled his eyes. _

"_**I spent a lot of time with May, but even I think she's changed, and not for the better." **__Blaziken remarked. _

"_**If she wants to be a Dragon Master, she would catch dragons, not just any cute Pokémon." **__Emolga commented. __**"And I'm not going to let her discriminate you. You are a great trainer. Why can't she see that?" **_

"_**I know. Dawn can't see that either. I've travelled with you, and I think you are good!" **__Piplup said. _

_Pachirisu hopped on Ash's shoulder. __**"Yeah, she even needed help from you to catch me, and she repaid this by insulting you? How dare she!"**_

"_**Can we join you and your Elite, Ash?" **__they asked in unison. _

_Ash knew they were telling the truth, using his psychic aura, and it's not just sweet talk._

"_Sure, why not?" he shrugged. The next moment, they pounced onto him for a group hug. _

(End Flashback)

"I'm going to go to attend the Pokémon World Championship, and you all will be coming with me. They will be there too, so we'll show them what we're made of." All his Pokémon cheered at the prospect of showing the traitors what he is really capable of.

"Hey, Ash!" Rosaline called out to him. "We're here!"

Ash went to the rooftop to greet the four members of his Elite, as they dismounted from their Pokémon.

"So you finally got your invite?" Jude said. "About time."

"Yeah, it took them quite a while to find out the fact that there's a Champion in PAL, and you know how secretive we can be." Ash replied.

"So, we'll leave now?" Jude asked.

Ash nodded. "Yes, now. We arrive to the Arena in the morning, since it's most likely all of us are to welcome the participants."

* * *

><p>"Alright, let's get going." Ash said to his Elite Four.<p>

"Skarmory/ Moltres/ Mantine/Togekiss/Charizard, let's fly!" Phillip, Rosaline, Jude, Pakura and Ash all shouted in unison.

And with that their mighty flying Pokémon took off, leaving their home behind for the Battle Arena.

"Hey, Ash, what are you going to do when you see them?" Rosaline asked.

Ash shrugged. "I'm angry, but I guess I'll just try to hold in my anger." Then the five of them looked on ahead as their Pokémon increased the speed towards the night clouds.

* * *

><p>I already am the very best,<p>

_(Ash's Pikachu defeating Pakura's Sylveon and being crowned Champion)_

Like no one ever was.

_(Ash using his Aura to defend himself against all the villainous team leaders)_

To prove to them is my real quest,

_(Ash and Pikachu confronting his former friends in Pallet Town)_

To protect them is my cause.

_(Ash protecting his Elite from Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Galactic and Plasma)_

I will do what I must do,

_(Pikachu saving Jude from a knife attack)_

Fighting for my rights.

_(Ash fighting a shadowy figure with his Charizard)_

Each Elite to understand

_(The PAL Elite Four standing in a pose)_

The power that they have

_(Ash's Elite Four showing off their unique abilities)_

PAL! It's you and me

_(Ash and Pikachu standing over a mountain that overlooked PAL)_

I know it's my destiny

_(Ash accepting the task Arceus assigned to him)_

Elite Four, oh, you're my best friends

_(Ash's Elite Four all nodding at him, saying that they got his back)_

In a world we must defend

_(The Elite Four surrounded by the villainous teams' grunts, and they prepared a defensive stance)_

Chosen One, a heart so true

_(The Legendaries all smiling at Ash)_

Our courage will pull us through

_(Ash and Pikachu managing to defeat Cyrus), (Jude trying and managing to save Philip from drowning in the river), (Phillip using his ability to set a trap for the Team Magma grunts), (Rosaline managing to evade a fatal attack), (Pakura taking an unknown person's offered hand with a determined expression)_

You teach me and I'll teach you

_(Pakura teaching Ash hand-to-hand and weapon combat), (Ash teaching Pakura battling strategies)_

(P-A-L) Gotta protect them all

_(All the regions Elites, Champions, with the PAL Elite Four posing together)_

PAL!

_(Ash running past everyone, and jumping towards the sky with Pikachu)_

* * *

><p>"Alright, we're here." Jude said as they landed in front of their destination just as the sun rose, and they were greeted by the League Officials, Jessie and James, former members of Team Rocket.<p>

"Look, it's Moltres!" James gushed, pointing at the Shiny Moltres that Rosaline dismounted from. "And a Shiny one at that! Rosaline, can I please touch it?" he begged the owner, eyes sparkling.

Jessie then whacked him on the head. "Stop being so childish, James." She chided, while everyone laughed, except for Pakura. Pakura shot everyone an annoyed look, shutting them up.

"Yeah, we're not going to steal it anyway, so quit playing!" said a certain talking Meowth.

"Alright, alright." said James, trying to pacify them. "We should tell them the details."

"Yeah." Jessie gave a cough and changed to her official business-like tone. "All of you are to register at the Pokémon Center for the tournament. The opening ceremonies and the tournament starts in three days' time."

"As for your rooms, instead of staying at the hotel with the other normal participants, you guys will be staying at a tower connected to the Battle Arena along with the other region Gym Leaders, Elite Fours and Champions." said James. "After that, Charles Goodshow requests you and your Elite to meet him at the Ballroom, something about a briefing and some spoilers."

The Battle Arena has a tower designed exclusively for the Gym Leaders, Elite Four and the Champions of the regions, mainly to keep them safe away from the paparazzi. This will be their home until the tournament ends. Each region has two entire floors (except for PAL since they don't have Gym Leaders). They just simply step on an elevator and press the number the League Officials told them. Easy enough to remember.

The walls of the elevator are made of crystal so that they can watch the people on the ground floor shrink to ants as they shoot up into the air.

Each of them were given their own rooms which consist of a bedroom, a dressing area, and private bathroom with hot and cold running water. There are also so many automatic gadgets that Ash was sure he won't have time to press all the buttons. The shower alone has a panel with more than a hundred options he can choose regulating water temperature, pressure, soaps, shampoos, scents, oils and massaging sponges. When a person steps out on a mat, heaters come on that blow dry his body. Instead of struggling with knots in wet hair, one can just place his hand on a box that sends a current through his scalp, untangling, parting, and drying his hair almost instantly.

There is also a closet full of clothing designed to fit any taste, the windows zoom in and out on parts of the region at his command. He only needs to whisper a type of food from a gigantic menu into a mouthpiece and it appears, hot and steamy, before him in less than a minute.

There is also a desk, TV and computer with fast Internet Connection. There is also a place where you can place all your Pokeballs.

When James, Jessie and Meowth directed Ash to his room, Jessie started ranting about rude twerps, especially Misty, since she has become so stuck up she thought Misty had a stick up her ass. James was also pissed off at Brock. From what they said, he learnt that Gary, Paul, Tracey and Professor Oak are here, though only Gary and Paul are here to participate in the tournament. They told him they had duties to do, before leaving him in his room.

Ash shrugged. He would find Gary and Paul, but he has duties to do as the Champion of the host region. Maybe he would find them after he has registered. With that in mind, he put on a hood that he had, and going down to the Pokémon Center with his Elite to register. His Elite gave him strange looks but did not say anything.

"Alright, good luck to all of you." The nurse said, as they registered for the tournament. As they registered, Ash heard a voice he never want to hear again.

"Max, slow down, the tournament isn't going to go away." said a certain brunette co-ordinator.

"No, I've got to register quickly so I can get to my training and book the best rooms in the hotel." A bespectacled kid answered.

The Elite members looked at each other. Jude even took Pikachu off Ash's shoulder in case they recognize him using that Pikachu.

"Is he one of them?" asked Jude, as Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder.

Ash silently nodded.

"Let's go, then." Phillip said. "Before your secret is out."

As they made their way back out, unfortunately, Max bumped into Ash.

"Hey! What do you bump into me for, apologize!" Max demanded. Only to be confronted by four angry Elites. Well three Elites were clearly angry. The fourth had her face hidden by her hair.

"Stop shouting at our friend like that!" Jude snapped. "You were the one that bumped into him, not the other way round! If anything, you should apologize to him!"

"Still, he needs to watch where he's going!" said May. "If he didn't, Max wouldn't bump into him!"

Brock, meanwhile, decided to flirt with Rosaline. "Oh, our meeting must be arranged by fate! Such a cute thing like you should go out with a manly person like- AUGH!" At that point, Rosaline snapped her fingers, and Brock's hair caught fire, and he was running around trying to douse it. A while later, Rosaline then snapped her fingers again, and the fire went off. Brock collapsed to the ground clutching to his injured scalp.

"You just used your ability, didn't you?" Jude whispered.

Rosaline nodded. "He deserves it."

"Apologize!" Max was still shouting at Ash, who was ignoring him. "Or I'll kick your ass in a battle!" Only to hear the other Elites (except Pakura) laugh at him. But even she had a hidden smirk on her face.

"There's no way you can beat Red." Rosaline said.

"A kid like you has no chance at all." Jude said.

"Yeah, you'll be flattened in five minutes flat." Phillip said.

"…" Pakura simply looked at Max in disdain.

"We'll see." Max growled.

"Not interested." Ash replied. "Let's go, guys." The Elite nodded, and followed Ash.

"Knew you were weak." Misty said, interrupting their way out.

That ticked Ash off. "Fine, if it's a battle you want, a battle you shall have! Let's get this over and done with."

They found an empty battlefield with Jude as the referee.

"This will be a three on three battle between Red Satoshi and Max Maple. Substitutions are not allowed. The match ends when one side is out of Pokémon. Trainers, choose your Pokémon!"

"Mightyena, I choose you!" Max said, as he sent out a Mightyena, who growled at Ash.

"Xatu, lend me your aura!" Ash asked the Psychic Mystic Pokémon.

"Ha, you're pretty stupid! Dark Pokémon is immune to psychic Pokémon!" Max shouted. "This will be easy."

"Why would he send a Psychic Pokémon against a Dark type?" Rosaline asked the other Elites.

"He'll win even if that Mightyena's immune to psychic moves." said Phillip. "Just watch."

"**That's right." **said Pikachu.

Pakura said nothing.

"Alright, Mightyena, let's start this off with Toxic attack!" Max commanded.

"Take it." Ash said. The toxic badly poisoned Xatu.

"Perfect. Now use Crunch!" Max cried.

"Dodge and use Miracle Eye!" Ash told his Xatu.

Xatu jumped up, and his eye sparkled as it stared at Mightyena.

"What kind of move is that? It didn't even affect my Mightyena one bit." Max sneered.

"Now use Psycho Shift!" Ash shouted out.

"Ha! It won't even affect my Mightyena one bit. Take it!" Max asked his Pokémon to take it to prove that it won't affect his Pokémon. Surprisingly, his Pokémon glowed purple, indicating it is badly poisoned.

"What? How?" he demanded.

"Miracle Eye removes a Dark-type Pokémon's immunity to Psychic-type attacks. Which means, your Mightyena can be attacked by Psychic moves now." Ash explained. "Surely a smart aleck like you would know."

"You…That's why you asked Xatu to take the Toxic attack!" Max accused.

Ash smirked, and nodded. "That's right. Now, finish it off with Dazzling Gleam!"

There was a sudden powerful flash that made those watching the match cover their eyes. When the light died down, Mightyena was down with swirls in its eyes.

"Mightyena is unable to battle, Xatu wins!" Jude announced. "Trainer, send your next Pokémon."

"Gallade, I choose you!" he sent out the same Ralts he had befriended only this time he had evolved to one of his final forms, Gallade.

"Gallade, Close Combat! Let's finish this bird off!" Max shouted.

"Xatu, fly up high to dodge it!" Ash said calmly.

Xatu used its wings to fly up high, dodging Gallade's barrage of punches and kicks.

"Now, Xatu, Aerial Ace!"

"Dodge it!" Max shouted.

Ash calmly said, "While it's dodging, use Aerial Ace again." This time, it hit Gallade, and since it's part fighting, the move was super effective, knocking it out in one hit.

"Gallade is unable to battle, Xatu wins. Trainer, send out your last Pokémon."

Max got angry, and sent out his last Pokémon. A Banette appeared.

"Banette, use Shadow Ball!" Max cried out. Banette created a black ball in front of its mouth and fires it at the Xatu.

"Xatu, use Ominous Wind to blow the Shadow Ball back to it!" Ash said.

"Dodge it, Banette!" Banette dodged it, but that was what Ash is waiting for.

"Xatu, get behind Banette using teleport and use Confuse Ray!" Ash said. It hit Banette dead on, and Banette is confused.

"While it is confused, use Psyshock!" The Psyshock fainted the Banette instantly.

"Banette is unable to battle, Xatu wins!" Jude announced. "The winner of this match is Red Satoshi."

"Come on guys, let's go." Ash said, as the Elite turned, and silently followed him, Jude returning his Pikachu once they are out of sight.

* * *

><p>"I still don't get why Charles Goodshow wants to see us." Jude said, as they made their way to the ballroom.<p>

Ash shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough."

The ballroom is a high ceilinged elegant room decorated with a tasteful crystal chandelier shone bright lights that reflected off the highly polished floors and decorations, making the ballroom rather sparkly. In the middle of the ballroom there was a long table covered by a white table cloth with laces and a single red line near the bottom. There were cloth covered chairs as well with cushions to be more comfortable. Along the walls were tables filled with various food and drinks, buffet style. Standing around the food table or sitting down on the table in the middle were the Elite Four and Champions of the five regions.

Ash opened the door, and they went in without being noticed by anyone, since they were too busy talking to each other.

Except for Charles Goodshow.

"Ah, Ash, my boy!" he came over to greet Ash and his Elite.

"Hello, Mr. Goodshow." He smiled at Charles.

"Good to see you and your Elite. We are just having a little social gathering, before we have a briefing. Just go ahead and enjoy yourselves for a while, maybe talk to the others"

"Ok." The PAL Elite nodded, and went to get some food for themselves. They were hungry anyway, since they haven't eaten breakfast.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the table, Lorelei was looking at a PAL leaflet. "According to this, the PAL Elite is made up of these four, according to ranking, starting from the lowest: Jude Harrison, Rosaline Pyra, Phillip Robinson, and Pakura Ameyuri, with Pakura being the Leader of the Elite. There's no info on the Champion, only the fact that he was crowned Champion two years ago." She was talking to her fellow Elites. "There are no Gym Leaders at all, only Elites. If one wants to take the Elite challenge, all they need is six Pokémon. It says here they have separate rooms."<p>

"Then how does it work, if they have a Leader of the Elite? The Leader must be the strongest among them." Bruno said.

"Well, according to the pamphlet, you need to defeat one Elite at a time to unlock the next door. In the beginning when trainers first enter, all doors are locked except for Jude's. After he is defeated, the next door gets unlocked and the same goes for the third. Pakura is the last to be challenged." Lorelei read from the pamphlet. "Each Elite has his or her own distinct door, unlike Unova, which all of them has the same door, although they can be challenged in any order."

Lance took the pamphlet. "It says here that Jude is famous for being a magazine clothes model and an S-Class Pokémon Connoisseur, Rosaline is famous for her Mahou Shoujo manga writing and she's a Pokemon history expert, Phillip's famous for his inventions, he can invent loads of stuff the world hasn't even thought about, and Pakura's famous for being a Top Coordinator."

"What else does it say?" Agatha asked.

"It says that PAL Elites is well known to specialize in two types. I don't know what types they specialize in. It doesn't say here." Steven frowned. **(A/N: Because Kanto's Champion in the Games is your rival, in the anime, they technically don't have a Champion, so I'll put Steven as Kanto's Champion while Wallace is the Hoenn Champion.)**

"If you must know, I specialize in Water/Dark. Mainly Water though." They jumped and turned, only to see Jude smiling at them. He was holding on to a toast.

"Who are you?" Bruno asked.

"Jude Harrison. I'm surprised you didn't notice us come in the ballroom. Then again, you guys were too busy talking to each other." He bit on his toast.

"Hi, nice to meet you, Jude!" The Elite members smiled at him. So this is the first member of the PAL Elite. The boy had black hair with smooth bangs brushed to the side with wide amber eyes that was filled with mischief. Pale skin and soft lips that oozes out the desire to be kissed. He had a slight muscular build and is fairly tall. He was rather cute looking. He was one example of a pretty boy.

Jude smiled back. "Yeah, nice to meet you guys too. You guys are the Kanto Elite, right?"

"How do you know?" Lorelei asked surprised.

"You guys are known even in this region." Jude shrugged.

"Really?" Bruno asked.

"No, I'm lying." Jude said playfully. "Of course! One of the fellow Elite told us about you. Apparently, the Elite met you before."

"What? Who?" Lance asked.

"Sorry can't tell ya." Jude said, winking, making the female Elite members blush.

"So, tell us more about this Elite of yours." Steven said.

"Hmm….I'll just tell you this: all of us have our titles. Nicknames, you know. For instance, they call me the Merman. Also, we also have jobs outside besides being an Elite. I mean, we all think we should do something else to be useful to the society besides being an image to our region. It gets boring after a while, being an Elite, and staying at one place, don't you think?" The others nodded at his statement.

"So, you guys have a life outside of being an Elite?" Lorelei asked.

"Yeah, I mean, no one ever gets past me when they took the challenge, except for our Champion, and that was like 2 years ago. It's boring for the other Elites too, so we go outside our Plateau and travel around and do other stuff, like participating in events and doing contests, helping to solve mysteries, hunting for treasures, inventing things, stuff like that."

"So tell us more about your Champion." Lance requested.

Jude shrugged. "He was so strong that he was the only one to be able to defeat all of us, we were surprised that our Leader got defeated, although she somehow did manage to get him to use all six of his Pokémon. He only used at most four when he reached Phillip. He used only two against me and Rosaline."

"Wow…." Steven said in awe.

Jude finished his toast. "You know, I'm gonna get more food now, and maybe grab some coffee. We are tired from the late night Poké-flight here. I'll see you later." With that he sauntered off to get more breakfast.

"I'm getting more breakfast too." Bruno said, getting up.

"Me too." Lance mumbled, and he left the table as well.

* * *

><p>"Charles really outdone himself. Breakfast today is rather extravagant." Bruno said, gobbling on the scrambled eggs. "How does he afford all these?"<p>

"Hey, save some for the others, won't you?" Karen frowned at him. "You're not the only one wanting to eat, you know."

"Yeah, we need to eat too you know." Will glared at him. "I was looking forward to the scrambled eggs."

Lance just shook his head. Bruno always eats lots of food, saying he needs the energy for training. There's no way he'll cut down the amount of food he takes in.

Just then, Drake appeared. "Hey, Lance, have you heard about PAL's Legendary Dragon Duo?"

"What?" Lance frowned.

"The Legendary Dragon Duo." Drake said impatiently. "It consists of two people, a boy and a girl, that is said to be able to tame even the wildest Dragon Pokémon. Individually, they were given the title Dragon Prince and the Dragon Princess. They are said to know the hearts of the dragons and have the ability soothe their hatred if any. They can also fully utilize their potential, and they have the gift to be able to summon Dragon Pokémon for help. They can also very fluent in the dragon language, being able to understand what Dragon Pokémon are speaking and write in said language. They are said to have powers that match the most powerful Dragon Pokémon. I was talking to Charles earlier, and he told me about them."

"Cool, I would like to meet them." Lance replied.

"That's the thing. They vanished into thin air five years ago, just like that Ash boy you mentioned." Drake sighed. "There were rumours they were going to get married and they were lovers, since they were so close, but something happened and they suddenly disappeared!"

"They….disappeared?" Lance widened his eyes. "Like Ash?"

"Yeah I'm just telling you because they originated from this region." Drake said. "Oh well, I'm going to talk to my fellow Elites now, later!" With that, he left.

'Disappeared, huh?' Lance thought. 'What if the PAL Elite has something to do with both disappearances?'

"Alright, sorry." Bruno said, apologizing for taking all the food. He turned his attention to a rainbow cake with chocolate layer. "Oh, it's the last slice! I get dibs!" he shot out a hand to take it, but a delicate hand was faster, and snatched up the cake in the split second.

Bruno turned to glare at the owner of the said hand, but his glare died when it met amethyst eyes. She could be considered beautiful with her shiny black hair that is rippling in the slight breeze from the air-con and glossy pink lips. She also has a voluptuous figure. She is staring at them while nibbling at the cake she had taken, after removing the protective plastic around it.

"Oh My God, she's beautiful!" Will said. Bruno dumbly nodded.

"Hey, I'm Karen, nice to meet you!" Karen smiled at her. Instead of smiling or greeting back, the girl stayed silent, and looked rather wary. She just gave a curt nod after a while.

"Are you one of the PAL Elite?" Will asked eagerly. Pakura gave a single nod.

"What's your name?" Karen asked.

Pakura stayed silent for a long while, chewing her cake, before saying quietly, "They call me Pakura."

"Pakura?" Bruno said, remembering the name from the pamphlet. Wasn't she the Leader of the Elite?

Pakura finally finished her cake and said, "I'm going somewhere else. Later."

"So soon?" Lance asked her. "Why not stay a little longer and chat with us?"

Pakura shook her head, and left quickly before they could say anything else.

* * *

><p>Sitting at one of the chairs at the main table was Phillip Robinson. He was eating and at the same time, making a rough design for his new invention with the laptop he had brought along. He had made sure to sit somewhere where others would not really notice, so that he could have his peace.<p>

He deleted yet another one of the parts he designed for the zillionth time. "This is not the one that I envisioned!" He said to himself in frustration. "It's missing something, but what is it?" He nearly tore his hair in aggravation.

"Something wrong?" A voice asked.

Phillip looked up, opening his mouth to snap at the person for disturbing his work, thinking it's one of his fellow Elite, Jude, but he was wrong. Standing there was five people, all of them smiling at him.

"No, it's nothing." Phillip looked back down on his laptop, only to hear chairs scraping around him. The people sat around him, and tried to bring him into conversation.

Phillip sighed, and closed his laptop. He'll just have to do this later.

"So, are you one of the PAL Elite?" A girl with short black hair and blue eyes, with 2 red flowers that cover the sides of her head asked him.

"Yeah, I am. I'm Phillip Robinson." Phillip introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Phoebe! I specialize in Ghost type Pokémon" the girl with 2 red flowers on her hair introduced herself.

"I'm Glacia, Ice type." A blonde haired girl introduced herself.

"I'm Sidney, a Dark type." A slightly bald man with one patch a purple hair that sticks upright said.

"I'm Drake, a Dragon type." A man wearing what looked like a ship captain's hat said.

"And I'm Wallace, Champion of Hoenn, and a Water type." Wallace introduced himself.

"So, tell us more about yourself." Phoebe asked.

"I'm the third member you have to face if you take the challenge, and I'm a Steel/Electric specialist." Phillip shrugged. "My nickname is the Genius Inventor."

"Wow, you must be strong, if you are the third member! I mean, no one who took the PAL Elite challenge got past even the first member!"

"Not really." Phillip said dryly. "Our Champion did. He's the first person that defeated all four of us, although only our Leader managed to force him to use all six of his Pokémon." He suddenly stood up. "I'm going to get some more food."

"I'll join you." Wallace and Phoebe stood up, and followed Phillip. They chatted their way to the table, mainly talking about Phillip's new invention, a better version of the binoculars, called the "Grandiculars", where you can replay action, slow everything down, and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Perfect while you watch a match since you'll know what exactly is going on as it has X-ray features that can see through smoke and explosions and attacks.

* * *

><p>Cynthia sighed. This breakfast gathering is rather in a happy mood. She hadn't been in a happy mood since a certain cap wearing boy with a Pikachu vanished off the face of the Earth. She was standing in a corner, stewing in her own thoughts.<p>

Cynthia's Memories

"_Where's Ash?" Cynthia, the Sinnoh Champion, has been looking for him all over, but no luck. She was confronting his friends, since they are close to him, and she believed they might know where he had went. _

"_Why would you be looking for that loser?" Brock sneered. "Why waste your time with him when you can have me?" he tried to take her hand but she smacked him away. _

"_Where is he?" she repeated herself. _

"_Who knows? He disappeared with all his Pokémon and never returned. Good riddance too, we were about to get rid of him anyway." Iris shrugged, smirking. _

"_He might be dead for all we care." Misty said. _

_Cynthia was livid. How dare they do that to him!_

"_How could you? He helped you countless times, and saved your lives, without asking anything in return! How could you just plan to hurt him and get rid of him, and forget all he has done for you?"_

"_You can go look for him yourself if you want, we don't know where he went, and we could care less." Dawn said indifferently. _

_Cynthia gave them one last glare and strode off._

'_I'll find you Ash. I'll find you, and make sure you never leave me again.' She vowed to herself._

(End memories)

"Earth to Cynthia!" Aaron shouted in her ear. Cynthia was jolted out of her memories

Bertha frowned at her. "Don't tell me you are still thinking about the Ash Ketchum boy. It's been like four years since he disappeared."

"He did not disappear!" Cynthia hissed. "It was those traitor friends of his who caused this to happen! And how could I, when…" She took a step back, only to step on a foot.

"Oh, sorry-" Cynthia looked up to see a hooded person with a Lucario by his side.

Inside the hood, Ash gulped. All he was doing was getting some food (and a lot of food it was too), and he was reaching for the chocolate éclair near the Sinnoh Elite, when someone suddenly stepped on his foot, causing him to nearly drop his éclair. When he looked up, he saw the Sinnoh Champion. He felt a slight regret for not telling her how he had felt about her before he ran away, but he must put up a show.

"**You ok, Master?" **Lucario asked him.

"**You ok, Ash?" **Pikachu asked from his hidden position in his cloak.

Ash gave Lucario and Pikachu a very slight nod. He has a role to play.

"Oh no, it's ok, Miss-" He pretended not to know her name.

"Cynthia." Cynthia introduced herself. "What's your name?"

"Red Satoshi." Ash replied shortly. "I'm the Champion of the PAL region."

"Oh, so you're the famous Champion? The most powerful Pokémon Master?" Flint asked eagerly. "The one that was nicknamed Silent Hero?"

"Yeah…" Ash was a bit cautious as he said this. Where was this going?

"Please, can you tell us if a boy called Ash Ketchum has been in this region?" Cynthia pleaded. He must be somewhere, and if he wasn't seen in all the other regions, he must be somewhere in this region. "I've been looking everywhere for him, and it turned out nothing!"

Ash frowned. Why would Cynthia go so far to find him?

"You really need to get over this crush on him." Aaron shook his head. "It's been four years already!"

"Aaron!" Lucian smacked his head with his book. "That's not nice!"

"Alright, sorry." Aaron said.

Ash gaped, not that anyone could see it. Cynthia likes him too? As much as he would like to tell her, however, he still needed to keep a show. But maybe, maybe he could give her some clue, to give her hope that she has a chance to find him.

"Yeah, he is in this region." Ash said. This catches Cynthia's attention.

"Have you seen him?" Cynthia asked hopefully.

"I have. However, he told me not to tell you anything, other than the fact that he's participating in this tournament."

"Thank you." Cynthia said, smiling. Now there's a huge chance of finding him, and possibly make him hers.

Ash waved the thanks off. "No problem."

"So, tell us more about your Elite." Aaron said eagerly.

"Uh….you see…"

Ash found himself bombarded with questions by the Sinnoh Elite, with no way to get out. He answered them to the best he could, without giving himself away. And all his Elite members are chatting with the other region Elites.

'This is going to take a while.' Ash thought with a groan.

* * *

><p>'I think that's enough food for now.' Rosaline thought, as she looked at the plate that she had filled with food from going to different tables. She grabbed an orange juice, and looked for a seat at the main table. She looked around for her fellow Elites, hoping she could join one of them, but they were too far away from her, so she shrugged, and sat down alone somewhere near the end of the table, and began consuming her breakfast.<p>

"Hey, mind if we join you?" A female's voice asked her. She looked up to see five people smiling down at her. The speaker was a female with short purple hair and glasses.

"Oh, sure." She smiled at them, as they sat down around her. "I'm Rosaline Pyra, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Rosaline." A man with saffron and black hair with black eyes said.

"So, are you one of the PAL Elite?" A girl with huge blonde hair in a white hat and blue eyes asked her.

"Yeah." Rosaline nodded.

"Say." A guy with black spiked hair with matching eyes leaned close to Rosaline. His eyes were narrowed in such a way that gives him a mysterious air about him "You're a cute one. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Grimsley!" The purple haired girl knocked his head. "It's rude to ask personal questions to someone we just met!"

The now identified Grimsley held his head. "You don't have to hit so hard, Shauntal."

"Er….no, it's ok." Rosaline said, sweatdropping.

"So, what's your speciality?" Shauntal asked.

"I'm a Fire/Psychic specialist."

"Oh, you're just like Caitlin then." Grimsley indicated the girl with the white hat. "She's a Psychic too."

"What types do the rest of you specialize in?" Rosaline asked.

"Dark." Grimsley said.

"Ghost." Shauntal replied.

"Fighting." Marshal said.

"I'm a Champion, so I don't have any speciality type." Alder shrugged.

"You must be strong to be able to be a PAL Elite member." Caitlin remarked.

"Oh no, I am not very strong. I'm actually the second member you have to face if you ever take our challenge." Rosaline shook her head. "I'm nothing compared to the Champion. Actually, I don't think I can even match the Leader."

"Tell us more." Alder requested.

"Champion Red is a very strong person. He's the only person so far to be able to get past Jude, and the first Champion of our region ever. All of us never lost our matches, until Red came along, and decimated us with his Pokémon. Even Pakura lost, although she was able to get him down to his last Pokémon. After her defeat, he was crowned Champion."

"Cool." Shauntal was awestruck at the Champion's power.

"It is." Rosaline nodded. "Also, the thing is, each one of us has something, a unique trait that makes us stand out from one another. We also have our own nicknames. For example, my nickname is Fire to Ice, because my fiery personality contrasts with Pakura's icy personality, and we are best friends….well, at least I'm one of the few that can get her to say more than a few words." She chuckled sheepishly. "Actually she doesn't even talk unless to give a command during Pokémon battles. I'm the opposite, I like to socialize with people, I like to talk a lot, and I'm like the polar opposite of her, thus my nickname."

"So is her nickname Ice to Fire?" Caitlin guessed.

"Oh no, it's not. Her nickname is something else altogether."

"So what is her nickname then?" Grimsley asked.

"It's for us to know and you to find out." Rosaline smiled, as she gulped down her orange juice.

* * *

><p>After breakfast, Charles gathered everyone at the main table. "Alright, did everyone notice five new people coming in as you guys were socializing during breakfast?" Everyone nodded, as they have talked to least one of the PAL Elite.<p>

"They are the PAL Elite, and they will be your hosts for this tournament!" Charles said. There were murmurs of excitement.

"So any questions you'll like to ask?" Charles asked.

"Er….what are their specialty?" Lorelei asked. "Besides Jude, since we know he's a Water/Dark."

"Rosaline is a Fire/Psychic." Shauntal informed her.

"Phillip's an Electric/Steel." Phoebe mentioned.

"And Pakura's…" Bruno trailed off. She didn't mention her type specialty.

He was interrupted by Wallace, however. "Oh My God! Pakura Ameyuri? It's so great to meet you up close!"

Pakura merely frowned at him.

"Something wrong, Wallace?" Steven asked.

"And I can't believe you are a PAL Elite member too!" Wallace exclaimed.

"What's wrong Wallace?" Steven practically shouted.

"Oh…sorry. You see, Pakura's a Top Coordinator just like me, but she's labelled as a legendary one."

"Like Dr. Abby?" Glacia asked. Dr. Abby was give the title of Legendary Coordinator in Hoenn for winning the region's Grand Festival in her first year with just her then-Skitty, but then retired right after that.

"No, Pakura's in a whole new level altogether. What made her stand out among the other Top Coordinators is that she is famous for winning five Grand Festivals in the five regions straight in a row, and having Master Rank victories in all categories, which makes it a total of 40 Ribbons she won in her region. Counting the Ribbons she has to win in order to enter the Grand Festival in the other regions that makes a total of 65 Ribbons she has won in a short span of five years, making her the best of the best. That's including the Aqua Ribbon she won at the Wallace Cup back in Johto. I watched her win without losing any points, not even in the finals!" Wallace explained to wide eyes.

"66, actually." Rosaline corrected him. "Including the Aqua Ribbon." She earned herself a glare from Pakura. Why can't she just shut her mouth?

"66 Ribbons!" Wallace said in alarm. "Why, I am a novice compared to her!"

Pakura glared at the stalker….er…Wallace. Why is this person a Coordinator too? She just wants to get this…gathering over and done with. That's why she hates going to gatherings. Somehow, something about you will get talked about. And being a coordinator doesn't matter, because this tournament is not a contest.

"Enough." Ash said coldly. "Weren't you asking about her type specialty?"

"Oh yeah." Rosaline said. "She's a Fairy/Ice type."

"Wait, what's a Fairy type?" Cynthia asked. They never heard of this type before.

Surprisingly, it was Ash (Red) who answered.

"Fairy-type Pokémon are mostly cute, pink or feminine in appearance, and can be really powerful. Fairy types also have some magical appeal to them. As opposed to Psychic-type Pokémon, Fairy-type Pokémon have powers related to magic and supernatural powers, instead of mind power." Ash explained. "Considered to be one of the best defensively, and very powerful offensively, as it is super effective to against Dragon, Fighting, and Dark, all of which were otherwise great types defensively."

"Looks like they're a force to be reckoned with." Lance mumbled, hearing the Dragon part.

"You got that right." Rosaline said. "They are immune to dragon-type moves."

"So basically, she's a dragon slayer…" Drake trailed off, looking at Pakura with unease.

"Yup!" Jude nodded.

"If I am going to battle her during the tournament, I'll probably lose." Lance muttered.

"Can you guys show us an example of a Fairy Pokémon?" Cynthia requested.

With encouragement from Lucario (and a hidden Pikachu), Ash took out his Pokéball, and threw it, releasing the Pokémon within. When the light cleared, a quadruped, mammalian Pokémon covered primarily in pale cream-colored fur with pinkish feet, ears, and tail was revealed. There are two bows on it, one on its left ear and one around its neck, from which two feelers adorn it. The bows are pale cream with pinkish centres, while the feelers are pale cream with pinkish and blue tips. It has short, slender legs and small paws with three visible toes on each foot. Its eyes are blue with white pupils and no visible sclera.

"**Hi, everyone." **The Pokémon said in a cute and calm manner, but all the other Elites (other than the PAL Elite and Ash) heard it as "Sylveon."

Everyone "ooh-ed" and "ahh-ed" at this Pokémon.

"Ohh…it's so cute!" Caitlin exclaimed. "Can I touch it?"

"Sure." Ash shrugged.

Caitlin walked over and petted Sylveon, and Sylveon affectionately wraps its ribbon-like feelers around Caitlin's arms, sending a soothing aura to Caitlin, which gave her a calm feeling.

The sheer cuteness of this Pokémon was enough to make even a certain Johto Champion to be tempted to pet it but restrained himself because he doesn't want to look like a softie in front of the other Elites, especially the PAL Elites. In fact, he had to grab his hand in order to prevent himself from petting Sylveon. The said temptation however, walked over to him and nudged him, whining to be petted.

"You can go on and pet Sylveon!" Rosaline said.

"No need to restrain yourself." Phillip said in amusement to Lance.

"Yeah, no one's gonna laugh!" Jude smiled.

"…" Pakura said nothing.

"Just pet it." Ash said. "Don't hurt its feelings."

Lance gave in, and started to pet Sylveon, which gave a purr of contentment, wrapped its feelers around his arm, giving him a calm feeling, and rubbed its head against his leg. Thankfully, no one said anything.

Sylveon went around to get petted by everyone.

"Not even Crasher Wake would be able to resist the cuteness." Ash commented, watching Sylveon get petted by Agatha.

"Does it evolve from any Pokémon?" Cynthia asked eagerly.

"It used to be an Eevee." Ash replied.

"So it's an Eeveelution?" Cynthia asked.

"It is." Rosaline said.

"So how can it evolve into this cute thing?" Grimsley asked, petting the Intertwining Pokémon.

"Let it learn a Fairy-type move and level it up." Ash answered.

"Ohh…" Everyone said in awe.

"Alright, that's enough." Ash said. "Sylveon, return." He returned his Sylveon in a beam of red light.

"So, now we know their type specialty, shall we get down to business?" Charles asked, having watched the scene silently. Everyone agreed, and went to sit down on the main table.

"Alright, due to the huge number of participants, we are to have preliminary tag battles for the first three days. Each pair are to use six Pokémon; three for each trainer. You will know your partner on the day the tournament starts." Charles said. "You have to win against at least two other pairs to be able to get in the tournament round, and have three chances to do so. Pairs who win two rounds are automatically in the top 128 people."

"Once we know what pairs advance to the tournament, there is a one day break where the PAL Pokémon League Committee decides on which participants that were eliminated during the tag battle can have a chance to participate in the one-on-one battles, since we know the probability of one person doing all the work, causing them to lose is high."

Just then, Charles phone rang. He gave a "one-minute" sign to all Elites, as he talked on the phone, the Elites silent as they watched him. He hung up after a few short minutes.

"Oh, and also, Phlox has contacted me just now, saying all participants have registered, so the opening ceremonies is tonight instead of three days later, so PAL Elites, get the preparations ready by tonight. Phlox said you guys have planned it a long time ago, so there shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright, you guys are dismissed, have a nice day." Charles said, and the Elites all stood up and left.

"We should go prepare for the ceremony." Jude said to his fellow Elites.

They nodded, and went off together to prepare.

* * *

><p>Later, Ash was dressed in what will either be the most sensational or deadliest costume among the five of them. He was wearing what looked like a simple black shirt with dark blue pants. He was also wearing a silver belt, and shiny black boots. His cape was simple as well. It was entirely black, giving him an unfathomable air about him. His fringe is also combed down to cover his eyes completely to add to the effect.<p>

He had to wear the costume to reflect his nickname, since he doesn't have a type specialty, unlike his Elites. They had planned to wear costumes that reflects their type specialty, and make a good impression among the other participants and audience, since they are the Elite the other participants never heard of, and first impressions are always important. They planned to ride the chariot from the Battle Tower through the City circle back to the Battle Arena stage, where Rosaline, their emcee would give a welcoming speech.

"**You look great Ash." **Pikachu said.

"Thanks, Pikachu." Ash replied, before going to meet up with the other Elite members, and all of them (except Pakura) gaped at his costume.

"Wow, you look great!" Phillip said. He was wearing a glittery outfit decorated with pearls that catches the light around them, but there seem to have electric lights sewn to them, for what Ash thought was pearls was actually light sources. He was also wearing a headdress that mimicked the complex inner workings of electronics. The said headdress also have lights attached to it. He was also wearing silver shoes decorated with glitter.

"You too, Phillip." Ash smiled at him. "Great outfit, Jude."

"Thanks." Jude was wearing what looked like a blue tunic that is tinted in black that represented waves' appearance at night with starfish pins on his shoulder and a dark seaweed crown that is decorated with black pearls. He was wearing turquoise shoes that has a shine to it. "You girls look amazing."

Rosaline smiled. She was wearing what looked like a magenta and red two-layered gown that had ruffles and spiked sleeves, complete with a pink scarf around her neck. She was wearing a magenta and red ballet flats with red 'spikes' at the side to resemble flames. On her hair was a small white tiara with a pink round gem in the centre, with flame shaped 'wings' protruding from its side.

Pakura is wearing a strapless gown that reached the floor that looked like she was standing in a pool of velvet. The gown was decorated with flowery lace at the top half, and at the bottom it was white with dark pink on the left side, and a slight light pink in front. The parts of the gown that reached the floor was alternated between pinkish lavender and white. At the middle of the part where top and bottom half of the gown were separated there was a flower shaped jewel made out of diamond. Her stylist also put her hair down, and added a light blue platinum tiara that was intertwined into a heart shape in the middle. In the heart shaped gap, there was a smaller sapphire diamond heart in the middle. To finish the outfit, she was wearing icy blue wings at her back. Her shoes couldn't be seen, and she lifted her gown enough to let them see she was wearing pink glittery flats complete with a dark blue ribbon in the front.

All their faces were relatively clear of makeup, just a bit of highlighting here and there. Probably to show their natural beauty.

"They are going to love us." said Phillip. The others (except Pakura) nodded in agreement.

They climbed into their own chariot, as every Elite has his or her own one which is pulled by 4 Rapidash. Pakura is going to go first, followed by Phillip, Rosaline, Jude, and finally, Ash. Ash hid his Pikachu in the chariot, and also sent out his Ho-oh to fly behind him, since it itself is to light up the torch. When all are in position, the music plays, and they started moving.

Meanwhile, the audience and participants were waiting to see what the PAL Elite is like. There were cameras all over the path on the way to the Battle Arena, and connected to the screen, where they will show the faces of the Elite. Some of the audience were seated around the City Circle, for there were so many people coming to witness this ceremony, to see the Elite themselves, there wasn't enough space in the Arena. All they knew about the Elite were their names. They wanted to see what they looked like, and guess their type specialty from their costumes.

The doors finally opened, and the audience cheered as they saw the Elite. Meanhile, the screen at the Battle Arena turned on as well.

"There they are! There they are! The PAL Elite!" Charles Goodshow announced, when the screen came on. "First up, is the Leader of the Elite, Pakura. She looks just dazzling in her outfit, the pink just compliments her eye colour. Don't you think?" The audience roared to show their agreement.

"Phillip looks just tech-savvy in his outfit. I like the lights in his costume. It reflects his specialty really well." Phlox said, as she watched Phillip's fans going crazy over his outfit.

"Rosaline's outfit just reflects the fiery spirit in her. I wouldn't want to cross her if her outfit says anything about her personality." Charles mock shuddered.

"I like Jude's theme in his outfit, and the little bit of black here and there to reflect the other type specialty of his." Phlox commented, as his fans threw rose water at him. "And…what's that? At the background?"

Ash is riding on his chariot, his cape billowing behind him, looking expressionless. The setting sun also shadowed his face, leaving his appearance as a mystery. Behind him was a magnificent bird with feathers are predominantly gold and red, with yellow tail-feathers, a white underside, and green feathers at the tip of its wings.

"Oh My God! Our Silent Hero, Champion Red!" Phlox said in ecstasy. "And is that a Ho-oh behind him?" The crowd's initial alarm quickly changed to shouts and cheers of "Champion Red!", "Silent Hero!", "Ho-oh!" Every head was turned their way, and the cameras were trained on them. Ash lifted his chin a bit higher, and gave a shy smile and waved at the audience, and everyone throws flowers at Ash's chariot. However, unlike the others, the number of roses was enough to completely cover the floor of the chariot.

"Champion Red! Champion Red! Champion Red!" His name was being called from all sides. Ash smiled 'bashfully' and waved at them, which gained favour from the audience. Who knows? He might need the public's support later.

The chariots finally reached the Battle Arena. The participants cheered as they saw the five chariots enter.

"Ho-oh, sacred fire in the torch!" Ash commanded. Ho-oh swept down, and released a gold-rose-coloured flame from its beak at the torch, igniting it, to cheers.

They finally stopped in front of the stage, and the five of them got off their chariots, Ash returning his Ho-oh with thanks, and walked towards the five seats reserved for them at the stage, in the midst of cheers.

"Now, we give the mic to the PAL's representative, the Fire to Ice, Rosaline Pyra!" Everyone clapped and cheered as the girl stood up, and made her way to the front.

"Thank you, Mr. Goodshow." Rosaline said. "Welcome, everyone, to the Pokémon World Championships. This year, we hold the tournament at the Pokémon's favourite paradise region, the PAL, short for Pokémon Awakens Love!" There were cheers and clapping from the participants. "Various participants come here from all regions, even the best from our regions participating, making this one of the largest tournaments and one of the most important one of the year!"

"I hope this tournament would be a great experience for each and every one of you, and hopefully maybe even get to know some friends! Do remember the rules and regulations, and make the best out of your time here. Do your best to win as well, because the winner would win a large sum of 1,000,000,000 Pokedollars in cash, a guarantee pass to unrivalled freedom to travel around the world, the title of strongest Pokémon Master, the ability to carry around all your Pokémon at the same time, and the diamond and gold encrusted trophy hand made by Phillip Robinson. Phillip, our Genius Inventor, has also generously offered some of his very own inventions as part of the prize!"

Everyone cheered as Phillip was well-known for his amazing inventions, and he never gives them to anyone. From where he was standing, Phillip waved at the audience.

"For us, it's a great honour to be here as well. I wish to see spectacular battles tomorrow, and hope to see cooperation between trainers should they be paired up together. Pairs would be known tomorrow before tournament starts, so for tonight, have a good rest, and thank you for coming!"

* * *

><p>After the ceremonies, Ash returned to his quarters, ready to change and shower before dinner, when Mewtwo teleported in. He had let him out of the Pokeball earlier because he said he wanted some fresh air.<p>

"Something wrong, Mewtwo?" Ash asked.

"Bad news, Ash. The five leaders, Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, Cyrus and Ghetsis escaped from prison, along with their most trusted guards this morning. They are coming for you and your Elite. Tell them to stay on guard."

Ash's expression turned solemn. "Got it."

"Oh and one more thing." Mewtwo said.

Ash looked up. "Yeah, what?"

"I just want to tell you to be careful of the quiet one." With that, he returned to his Pokeball.

Be careful of the quiet one? What does that mean?

Ash shrugged, before going for a shower. He'll think about it later.

**BP: Oh My God, it's the longest chapter I ever posted. I know it's bad, you don't have to tell me. Any questions, ask me though PM. The protagonist is definitely Ash, but can you tell which Elite is the** **deuteragonist and the Tritagonist? **

**Any do review though. Don't criticize me thanks. I received enough of them in real life. And no, none of them are perfect. They have their own flaws, I'll reveal them as the story goes. Now my head hurts from all the writing. **

**Thanks to mysterypink98 for helping out. I'm actually too embarrassed to post this fic. If not for her, I wouldn't even bother posting, because I'm too embarrassed. **

**Gary and Paul will come in the next chapter. Because Ash is busy with preparations, since his region is the host, he has to do his duties before he can see them.**

**P.S: I don't know how to do boarders (hence I use xs to separate scenes). Can someone teach me? Whenever I try to do one and upload on Fanfiction, it always disappears!**

**P.P.S: Please review! :D **


	2. Mysteries in PAL, Tag Battles (Day One)

**BP: Thanks for the reviews, favourites and followers! I hope to get even more this chapter! Sorry I updated late, I was incredibly busy with assignments and lectures, and had almost no time to myself. **

**Thanks mysterypink98 again for teaching me how to do borders! **

**Guess which Elite members are the Deuteragonist and Tritagonist for the story? **

Ash dressed in a navy blue shirt with black pants, before going out to join his fellow Elites. He noticed one person is missing.

"Where's Pakura?" Ash asked his Elites.

"Last time I saw her, she said she wanted to be left alone, as usual." Rosaline said. "She did send out all her Pokémon to eat though." She jerked her head towards the living room, where all their Pokémon were eating. Ash also sent out all his Pokémon for dinner.

Jude rolled his eyes. "Seems to me she doesn't want to be near us or something. Why did they even install the food service in our rooms?" He was irritated by her absence, and no one could blame him for that.

"She even explicitly told us in NO circumstances are we to go into her room without permission from her." Rosaline said. "If not she won't hesitate to give us a piece of her mind."

Ash internally sighed. He wanted to tell the Elites about the prison escape but he'll have to wait since one Elite is missing.

"Nah, I bet she's just busy preparing for the contest thing that our region organized." Ash said, composing himself. There was a contest alongside the tournament too. While the tournament rounds are held in the morning, contest rounds were held in the late afternoon. Pakura is designated to be one of the three judges, alongside Wallace and Fantina.

It works like a Grand Festival in other regions. Whoever wins the contest will get a special PAL Ribbon that allows them to compete in any region's Grand Festival they want, no matter how many Ribbons the winner has won. Which meant that even if this Ribbon is the only one you have, you still can enter the Grand Festival in any region. The winner also earns the right to meet any of the Legendary Coordinators of their choice up close.

"Well, I think it's been one exhausting day." Rosaline said. "So let's eat."

The dinner came in courses. A thick carrot soup, green salad, lamb chops and mashed potatoes, cheese and fruit, a chocolate cake. Although Ash was used to the high quality and quantity of food back in the Plateau, he couldn't help but stuff himself, although unlike four years ago, he had decent manners.

"By the way, what Pokémon are you guys going to use for the tag battle?" Phillip asked, deciding to make some small talk.

"Definitely not our Legendaries." Jude joked.

Phillip shot him a "You don't say?" look, and turned to Ash. "Hey, Ash, what Pokémon are you going to use?"

"I think I'll go with Leavanny, Roserade, and either Mismagius, Togekiss or Feraligatr, depending on the opponent's Pokémon type." Ash replied. "How about you?"

"I'll go with Emolga, Ampharos, and Rotom." Phillip said. "Rosaline?"

"Espeon, Delphox, and Rapidash." Rosaline listed.

"And I'm going with Greninja, Jellicent, and Sableye." Jude informed them. "Whoever our partner is, I hope their type specialty cancels out at least one of our weaknesses."

"Yeah, I hope so too." Rosaline said. "Ash doesn't need to worry, since he has Pokémon of various types, and he doesn't have a type specialty."

Ash nodded. "Good luck to you guys too, although I doubt you guys need it, since I know all of you can make it." The others chuckled at the last comment as they ate their dinner.

"What are you going to do after dinner, Ash?" Jude asked.

"I'll work on Mew's Aura Sphere. It's still a bit shaky."

"Yeah, I think you better work on that too." Phillip shuddered. Nothing disconcerted Phillip more than that uncontrolled Aura Sphere, where he had an unpleasant experience involving one and one of his latest inventions some time back. Hopefully Mew can control its Aura Sphere soon.

* * *

><p>"It's ok, Mew." Ash said, petting the New Species Pokémon. "It's ok if you can't master Aura Sphere today. It requires a lot of concentration of focusing your aura into one spot. You just need practice."<p>

They were at a clearing near a forest, where Ash had been using some trees as target practice for Mew's Aura Sphere. So far, Mew wasn't able to even control the sphere, going out of control and hitting more trees than intended. Currently, he is trying to comfort Mew, who lowered its ears, tail and eyes sadly at the fact that it couldn't master Aura Sphere despite being known to learn all moves.

"**You really think so?"** Mew shyly looked up to Ash.

Ash smiled. "I know so. Lucario, why don't you show Mew how to do it again?"

"**As you wish, Master." **Lucario said. He put his hands together and created a blue ball of energy. Lucario then fired it at one of the trees, incinerating the said part of the tree. **"Mew all you need to do is to concentrate on containing that aura. That's your priority. Start small, and then slowly increase the size of that sphere." **

Mew nodded, and tried again. This time, although it was a very small sphere, it was able to contain it into the desired shape.

"Very good Mew! You're getting there! Try and throw it!" Ash encouraged. Mew obeyed, and there was some impact on the tree.

Ash clapped his hands, along with Pikachu and Lucario. "Great attempt Mew!" He smiled.

Mew rubbed its hand on the back of its head, as if it was embarrassed about the compliment. **"Thank you Ash."**

"I think we better go to bed. Let's have an early night, we have to wake up early tomorrow. We'll practice again later."

Just then, Ash detected aura belonging to 2 people. He returned Mew secretly, and climbed up a tree with his Pikachu and Lucario that is set in a clump of other trees, offering concealment, so he can see exactly who they are while they can't see him and thanks to his physical enhancements (All Elite members possess this), he will most likely be able to hear what the approaching people are saying.

"So, how was the breakfast gathering, Lance?" a girl asked. They were walking through clearing towards the tree Ash was in.

Ash recognized this voice belonging to Clair, Leader of the Blackthorn Gym.

"It's fine. The food's great. It's even better than the food provided in the PAL train that took us here."

Ash remembered those trains. It looks like Phlox, their manager, arranged for transport for the Gym Leaders, Elite Fours and the Champions from their regions to PAL. Those trains were high speed models that go at 250 miles per hour, and journeys to their region would take less than a day. There are also chambers that provided a bedroom, dressing area, hot and cold running water, and even fine clothes in drawers. All of them got to enjoy the best accommodations: gorgeous floral arrangements, delectable foods, and lush surroundings. The money everyone earned in PAL is high, especially Hunters, and thus they could afford all these. Usually, only Hunters can use it, but for this tournament Phlox apparently made an exception for their guests.

"We got to know the PAL Elite, and spoke to some of them. I spoke to both Jude and Pakura….Jude only actually. Pakura hardly said a word, and left as soon as she finished her cake, although I tried to get her to stay longer to chat." Lance sighed. "Drake also told me about the Legendary Dragon Duo. Apparently, this is their home region, but something happened and they disappeared five years ago. No one even knows where they are now."

'You got that right.' Ash thought inwardly. 'Not even I know where they are, and what happened to them. No one even know their real names, not even me. Good luck if you want to find them. Rosaline has been trying to solve this case since she became a Hunter, but to no avail.' Pikachu and Lucario, picking up on Ash's thoughts, nodded.

"Speaking of dragons, how is trying to find the people who wiped out the Dragon's Clan Elders and stole their Pokémon?" Clair asked.

"Not very good. I can't seem to find a clue whatsoever on the identity of the culprit or culprits." Lance sighed.

"I still wonder why would someone do such a thing, Lance?" Clair said. "To wipe out the Dragon Clan's Elders, and as if they aren't satisfied enough, they stole the Dragon Pokémon belonging to them and set our town in an eternal blizzard! Not even the Pokémon could clear the blizzard for some reason."

"Although I don't approve of murder, those clan elders were a bunch of mean old hags and geezers anyway." Lance shrugged. "I mean, I saw one of them whipping a Salamence for refusing to use Dragon Breath on a helpless Sentret during training. Whipping a Salamence! And what did they do when they saw me? They-"

"Hold your tongue, Lance." Clair cut his rant off. "I know you carry a grudge against the Elders, but they're still our Elders, so we have to respect them. But who would set our town in an eternal blizzard and let all the Dragon Pokémon half-freeze to death?"

Ash raised his eyebrows. So, every single one of Blackthorn City's Dragon Clan Elders were wiped out? It must have happened between the time he accidentally teleported to PAL and the time he became Champion, since he never kept up with any news while he was training (or on the run from his former friends depending on how you want to look at it) in PAL, except for an occasional gossip or two. Judging by the looks on Pikachu's and Lucario's faces, this must be news to them too.

"Hopefully we can find whoever killed the Elders, or at least find somebody that can reverse this blizzard." Clair continued, as they got closer to Ash's tree.

"We'll just decide what to do with the culprit later….if we ever find the person that is." Lance muttered. They were directly under the tree Ash was at now.

"I have a feeling this region holds our answer to this case." Clair replied. "We just need to find it…perhaps the culprit is closer than we think….could it be that the cursed child put a winter curse to our hometown as revenge?"

"You believe that cursed child rumour?" Lance sounded incredulous. "It was like almost 18 years since that rumour, and I personally think it's nonsense that someone, especially a child can be cursed. Knowing those Elders, the child is probably dead by now, poor kid." There was a hint of pity in his voice.

The pair of them walked past the tree, and Ash waited until they are out of sight before jumping down, somersaulting, and landing on the ground safely, followed closely by Pikachu and Lucario.

Ash wondered if the blizzard was caused by an aura user, since Clair mentioned the Pokémon couldn't even dispel it, but shook his head. This is their business, not his, and besides, he already had a lot on his plate without worrying about those two. Besides, Blackthorn City isn't his home, so why would he care? Once upon a time, he might try to probe around, ask questions, and find clues, and charge in to help without thinking about the consequences, but now, he realized sometimes leaving them alone to figure it out is better.

If this is so, why does he feel slightly unnerved? What, or rather, who, is the cursed child they are talking about?

And why does Ash's intuition tells him that Lance was wrong, that the child is still alive?

Ash shook his head again. He'll figure it out later. It's better to think about the current situation rather than to think about what will happen in the future. Besides, it's not his business.

"We should get to bed. We shouldn't meddle in other people's business." Ash said to his Pokémon.

"**Yeah you're right. I'm sure they can handle themselves." **Pikachu agreed.

"**Yes, we better get to bed, Master." **Lucario said.

"Lucario, call me Ash, I already said it like a million times." Ash sighed.

"**Yes, Ash." **Lucario replied. But Ash knew he'll eventually revert back to 'Master'.

He made it to the lobby, and pressed the elevator button, and rode up all the way to the twelfth floor. There's no one in the sitting room, which probably meant that his Elites also wanted to have an early night.

Ash changed into one of the pyjamas provided, and laid in the soft, silky bed, pondering about Mewtwo's words, and the conversation he heard tonight. It seemed to him that there are more mysteries to solve than he initially thought, not just about the five bosses that escaped from jail.

And somehow, he knew he'll be the one to solve every single one of those mysteries.

"What do you think, Pikachu?" he asked his ever faithful friend.

"**I think there are a lot of mysteries going on around since you joined the Elite." **Pikachu said. **"It's just that it wasn't very obvious or we were too busy with our duties to notice until we arrived at the tournament." **

Ash nodded in agreement. "You know, buddy, something tells us that before we can take on the five bosses, we must first figure out what exactly is going on inside before we can take on the outside. For now, let's go to sleep. Night, buddy."

"**Night, Ash." **Pikachu yawned.

Ash nodded, and drifted off to a restless sleep.

* * *

><p>Grey light was leaking through the windows when a rapping on the door roused him.<p>

"Rise and shine, Ash!" Rosaline's voice was calling him to rise. "Today the start of the tournament!" She sounded cheerful and bubbly.

Ash groaned. How does she get so much energy in the early morning? Ash wondered what it must be like in her head, and what thoughts filled her waking hours. She was one of the three Elites (the other two being Jude and Phillip) that had loving families that believed in them that Ash ultimately didn't find in his mother. In fact, as one of the younger Elites, Ash wondered if Rosaline would even leave home if not for the fact that she crossed paths with Pakura. Ash remembered Rosaline only left home to follow Pakura on her journey, although Pakura never invited her along.

'It's nice to grow up in a loving family, but it's heart shattering when they don't believe in you and side with the traitors.' Ash thought bitterly. 'Wonder if I would have as much enthusiasm if my mum still believed in me at that time.'

"Wake up, Pikachu." Ash mumbled, shaking the mouse awake. "Time for breakfast." As the mouse stirred, he staggered to the bathroom, and refreshed himself. He dressed in his standard trainer's clothes, a navy blue shirt complete with a black short jacket, followed by midnight blue jeans and his cap that looked like his first Pokémon cap except the white parts are now black. Of course, it's complete with a hoodie that shadows his face very well. He also put on his fingerless gloves, where on its left glove, a Key Stone was imbedded into it.

Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder and he entered the dining room. As soon as he did, he sent out all his Pokémon to have breakfast in the lounge.

Ash looked to his Elites. As usual, Pakura is missing, but her Pokémon's out here eating breakfast.

"Morning, Ash! Come have a seat!" said Phillip, waving him over. The moment he slid into his chair he was served an enormous platter of food. Eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes. A tureen of fruit sat in ice to keep it chilled. The basket of rolls set would last a family for an entire week. There's elegant glasses of orange juice, cups of coffee, and cups of hot chocolate. Ash took an empty plate, and filled it with a substantial amount of everything on the table, before starting to eat.

"Is Pakura awake yet?" Ash asked.

"She is. She's the one that woke me up." Rosaline replied, pouring herself a cup of hot chocolate.

"She used the connecting door to get to your room didn't she?" Jude enquired. There were two connecting doors for each pair of rooms. To gain access to two rooms, both of them need to open the connecting door in their own room. Only Rosaline couldn't get into Pakura's room because she always kept her connecting door locked, and only unlocked it briefly to wake Rosaline up, before going back to her room and locking it again. Apparently, she wanted to prevent Rosaline from going into her room via the connecting door.

"Yeah." Rosaline confirmed. "Supposedly it's to keep me out." She looked rather hurt. Why would Pakura do this to her? Hadn't they known each other before they became Elite? Didn't she trust her? The questions were racing though Rosaline's mind.

She was interrupted, however, by the sound of a door opening, and Pakura coming out of her room, dressed and ready to go. She was wearing one of her trainer outfits- an electric blue top with a black skirt, complete with black boots, a light pink jacket and a belt to hold her six Pokeballs. Her hair was loose, and put up in a hairband. As soon as Skitty saw her, she hopped onto her shoulder, and nuzzled her affectionately. Pakura absent-mindedly scratched her under her chin, which made her purr in contentment.

"Morning, Paku." Ash greeted his Leader. Pakura nodded.

"What Pokémon are you going to use today?" Jude enquired.

Pakura looked around at her Pokémon, and pointed to Jynx, Skitty, and Audino.

"You're going to Mega Evolve your Audino, aren't you?" Phillip voiced his suspicion. The PAL Elites were also well-known to use Mega Evolution during battles, and each of them had their Key Stones worn as part of their outfit, while their Pokémon had the appropriate Mega Stones. Jude's one was in the form of a bracelet, Rosaline's a ring, Pakura's one was a charm, and Phillip's one is a stickpin he attached to his shirt.

Once per battle, only a single Pokémon for each Trainer may Mega Evolve, while this is true, another thing about the PAL Elites are, their bonds with every single one of their Pokémon are so strong; they can Mega Evolve their Pokémon anytime, thus bypassing the rule. Ash discovered this loophole shortly after he became Champion, thus he was the first person to Mega Evolve more than one Pokémon when he was battling.

Pakura simply shrugged at them.

"By the way, I have news for all of you." Ash said, since all his Elites are here now.

"Yeah, what?" Phillip sounded curious.

"According to Mewtwo, The five Leaders and their guards had escaped from jail." There were cries of shock from his Elites except Pakura, who stayed quiet. The Pokémon looked up, wondering what the chaos was about.

"Enough!" Ash shouted, trying to calm his three Elites down. They shut up upon hearing Ash shout. "They will come for us, and I want you to have your guard up at all times. You never know when they will attack. That's all." He didn't mention Mewtwo's warning of being careful of the quiet one, because he still didn't know what it meant yet, and wanted to figure this out himself.

"Got it." They said in unison, as they finished their breakfast and joined Pakura in the lounge to start returning their Pokémon back to their Pokeballs (except for those intended to use for battle later), and went to place all of the Pokeballs into their respective rooms, before meeting back in the lounge.

When Ash went back to the lounge, his Elites were already ready and waiting for him. All of them had at least one Pokémon out of their Pokeballs, like Ash: Jude's was Purrloin, Rosaline's was her Espeon, Phillip's was Emolga (previously Iris'), and Pakura's was her Sylveon and a Skitty (previously May's) that was riding on her shoulder and hidden in her hair.

"Come on, let's go." He said, and they rode down the elevator to the lobby, and walked out of the tower to the Arena.

When they arrived, it was empty. They must be the first ones to appear. Ash noticed a huge board full of headshots of people.

"The tag pairings must be out." Ash remarked, as he and his Elite got closer.

Ash scanned the board for his face, and found it somewhere near the top few rows. Next to his face was Cynthia's.

'Cool, I got Cynthia.' Ash thought.

Jude raised his eyebrows at his partner. It was a girl with pink hair that is short and spiked at two ends of her hair. She also had matching eyes, and a patch on her nose. She looked rather young for a Gym Leader.

"Maylene, Leader of the Veilstone Gym in Sinnoh. Specializes in Fighting types." Pakura mumbled, startling them.

"How did you know?" Jude asked.

"She used to travel around and collect Gym Badges with her previous travelling companion before she started Coordinating. Did it only for fun though, since she never registered for any Conferences." Rosaline explained. "I also collected Badges when I was travelling with Pakura, but by that time, she already had all the Badges from Kanto to Unova, so she started collecting Ribbons out of boredom."

"Really? What Badges do you guys have?" Ash asked them.

"Pakura has the Badges from Kanto to Unova." Rosaline answered for her. "While I have the Badges from Johto to Sinnoh."

"Wow! Same as me." Ash exclaimed to Pakura. Pakura stayed silent.

"Ok, whatever, let's see what who are our other partners." Phillip interrupted.

"Hey, you got Flannery, the Lavaridge Gym Leader. She specialises in fire types." Rosaline commented to Jude. "And I got…." She trailed off when she saw who her partner is. "…..the guy who hit on me during the breakfast gathering yesterday. Who did you get, Paku?"

Pakura silently pointed to her picture, and they excitedly looked to where Pakura was pointing.

"Oh! It's the Kanto Elite Leader and Johto Champion!" Phillip said, looking at Lance's picture next to hers.

"Whatever." Pakura mumbled. Who cares what his positions are at this point, anyway?

"Hey, Red." A voice said. Ash turned to see two people smiling at him. The first person had brown spiky hair and black eyes. He was wearing a black polo T-shirt with a brown jacket. He was also wearing khaki pants. The second person had shoulder-length purple hair and black eyes, and he's wearing an outfit similar to his original outfit- a black shirt with a jacket that is predominantly black, but has ultramarine colour in the middle of the jacket and the wrist part of the jacket sleeves over it.

"Gary! Paul!" Ash greeted them enthusiastically.

"Hey, we're here too!" A voice said. Ash looked up to see a boy with black hair and matching eyes wearing his usual green shirt and orange pants. He also wears an orange bandana around his forehead and is carrying his trademark sketchbook. Another was a late middle aged man with grey hair and black eyes. He is wearing his usual lab coat over his red shirt and fulvous pants.

"Tracey, Professor Oak!" Ash smiled.

"Hey, Red. Long time no see. How are you doing?" Paul asked him. "And how is Pikachu?"

"Great." Ash grinned.

"**I've never been better!" **Pikachu gave the peace sign.

"I heard you became the very first Champion of this region. Congratulations, I must say." Professor Oak complimented. "You were amazing in your battle against that Pakura girl. Thanks for sending us the footage of the battles. It was really entertaining."

"You're welcome." Ash nodded. "My win was all thanks to Pikachu here."

"**How modest, Ash." **Pikachu said, earning a laugh from him.

"Who are your partners?" Ash asked.

"I got Candice, the Gym Leader of Snowpoint City." Gary replied.

Paul sneered. "Max Maple. Can't wait to just take out his Pokémon, and win myself." Ash gave him a wry smile.

"Speaking of Max, I heard a Red Satoshi kicked Max Maple's ass last night during a mock battle, is that true?" Gary enquired.

"Yeah." Ash answered. He then told them the story about Max accidentally bumping into him when he and his Elite were trying to get out of the Pokémon Center as fast as possible to avoid conflict, but failed, and he was forced to have a battle so that they would shut up, although he was tired since they were flying during the night just to come here to prepare to welcome the guests.

"Well, that explains why they were complaining about some guy wearing a hood beating Max." Paul shrugged. "Then they came up and tried to ask me if I know about this guy in a hood. Told them to go away, but they persisted, even asking me if I knew anything about their missing Pokémon. Apparently they vanished simultaneously some time back. Who knows what happened to them? I don't know and I don't care. So to make them go away, I had Froslass use Icy Wind on them. You should see the looks on their faces when they were frozen into human popsicles." He concluded, chuckling. They laughed, imagining them as human popsicles.

"By the way, Ash, we got to tell you something." Professor Oak suddenly sounded grim. Gary and Tracey suddenly had solemn expressions on their faces too. Paul had his usual stoic expression. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you earlier, and we wouldn't tell, but Paul insisted that you need to know." He glared at Paul who shot him a look that clearly told Professor Oak he has the right to know.

"What is it?" Ash frowned.

"You see, a few days after you left Pallet Town…" Professor Oak hesitated.

"You mother vanished into thin air. No one could find her." Paul finished bluntly.

Ash froze. Wait, what did they just say?

When his brain finally comprehended Pauls' words, he stood up, looking down on the ground. "I need some time alone to think." With that, he abruptly stood up, and ignoring his friends' calls, raced out of the Battle Arena lobby, followed by Pikachu and Lucario, who are calling for him to wait up.

A pair of amethyst eyes, which were watching him since the reunion started, narrowed slightly, and the owner of those eyes silently slipped out of the Battle Arena after him.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Are you alright, Ash?" <strong>Pikachu asked. They had finally reached the edge of a lake.

"**You ok, Ash?" **Lucario asked

"I'm fine." Ash replied. "It's just….I can't believe they didn't tell me until now. Just…give me a bit of time to think about this." Although he hated his mum for never believing in him and wanting to tell him to give up on his dreams so he could stay at home with her, she was still his mum and she was the person that had prepared his backpack and clothing every time he goes to a new region, telling him to never give up.

Too heartsick or numb to cry, Ash simply stared blankly at his reflection in the water.

'It's been four years….I wonder what happened to her.' Ash thought. He sighed.

"Moping won't do any good." A voice said cuttingly.

Ash looked up, and was surprised to see his ever-stoic Leader, Pakura.

"What do you know, Pakura?" Ash snapped. What does Pakura know anyway? She doesn't keep in contact with her family, and check how they are doing. Although, she, like Ash, did this by choice, unlike Ash, she never even wondered what happened to her family. He remembered the huge arguments she usually have with his other three Elites whenever this issue arises.

Pakura didn't seem fazed by his tone. "I know that when my entire family died, I certainly didn't mope." Pakura answered blandly.

That startled Ash. Wait, what?

"Your whole family died?" Ash asked in shock.

"When I was 15." Pakura said flatly.

"B-But…" Ash spluttered. "Why did you let the other Elites think you never kept in contact with them?"

"Do you really think I need those idiots' sympathy that my family died while they still have theirs?" Pakura looked at him like it was obvious. "I don't like it when all people do is pity and say comforting words whenever they find what someone has been through. It's pathetic really, since words doesn't help the one who is suffering."

Seeing Ash's stunned look, she went up to him, and grabbed his collar. "And you, you came so far, and are you going to give it all up just because you mother is missing? No! You better show those pigs that they were wrong!" She pushed Ash against the tree trunk, letting go of his collar, and Ash hit the tree, and slid down on the ground.

Pikachu and Lucario scampered to his side to check if he is ok.

"**Pakura's right, you know." **Pikachu said with conviction, once he confirmed Ash is fine. **"I know it sounds harsh, but you came so far without them. We are so close into showing them that we're the best. Why show weakness towards someone who didn't believe in you, who listened to that snobbish rival's words?"**

"**And how about us, who ditched our Trainers just to follow you?" **Skitty added, thumping her tail against the floor. **"We followed you because you are not the type to give up on your dreams no matter how many setbacks you faced? We knew you will rise back up despite what they said about you." **Skitty was no longer the ditzy and mischievous Pokémon Ash once knew. Though she kept her cheerful and charming personality, she has improved her teamwork tremendously, and has also a serious and mature side to her under Pakura's care.

"**You have to show them what the results of your training are. I don't want your emotions to affect your performance, and when they find out it's you, they'll just laugh some more." **Lucario nodded, agreeing with Skitty.

Ash looked to the Pokémon and Pakura each waiting for a reply from him. He sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. It's no good to mope, because life always goes on, no matter what happens. We must hold our head up high and prepare ourselves for the future, and not dwell on the past." The Pokémon and Pakura seemed satisfied by his answer.

"**Good, now you know. And life goes on." **Pakura's Sylveon said. **"Let's go back to the Battle Arena."**

Ash nodded, and followed the others back to the Arena, which is by then crowded, as Trainers tried to get a glimpse of who are their partners on the board. Among them were the other regional Elites and Champions. He caught a glimpse of pink highlights in Rosaline's hair, and slowly made his way towards her. By then, however, Pakura has disappeared among the crowd.

"Red! Where were you?" Rosaline demanded. "Gary said you ran off, and we were so worried!"

"I just went to get some fresh air, that's all. Thanks for asking." Ash waved her off. "Besides, Pakura went to find me, and brought me here. Where's Gary and Paul anyway?"

"They are already in the Arena taking a seat. They said they'll come look for you again after the matches end." Rosaline answered. "They said their battles are after lunch break." Due to the many matches, there's a lunch break in between for trainers to take a break. For those who finished their battles in the morning, they can choose not to return to watch the afternoon matches. Which is what Ash and his Elites are going to do exactly, since their battles are in the morning.

"Well, that explains why Pakura wasn't with us just now." Phillip muttered. "By the way, where is she? Wasn't she with you?"

"Er…." Ash turned his head to look for Pakura. Where did she go anyway?

"It's Dragon, not Flying!" An irritated voice rang out.

Ash and his fellow Elites turned to see the source of the voice. It came from Lance, and he's talking to….

"She's over there." Ash groaned, pointing to his Leader.

* * *

><p>Ash checked the schedule of the battles to take place back in the V.I.P Box. "Alright, looks like Phillip's battle is to be commenced first. Next would be Jude, followed by me, Pakura and finally Rosaline. And it looks like I'm against Misty and Brock." He smirked at the last sentence. "By the way, good luck, Phillip."<p>

"Thanks Ash." With that, he left the VIP Box with his Emolga, Flannery and Roxie.

"**He'll be fine." **Pikachu assured Ash.

"It's not Phillip I'm worried about" Ash replied. "It's Trip." He pointed at Phillip and Flannery facing off against Trip and Roxie. Although he knew Phillip and Flannery would win, he hoped Trip and Roxie can get their two wins from two other pairs. He wants to take down Trip himself.

And no one is going to stop him.

"**Oh, I get what you mean." **Lucario growled at the Trip boy. Just then, there were cheering, and Ash spotted the referee, Evan, walking to the middle of one side of the arena.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Evan asked, only to be answered by cheers. "Alright, from the Green side, we have Leader Roxie, and Pokémon Trainer Trip! And from the Red side, we have Elite Phillip and Leader Flannery!" There were louder cheers for the latter pair, mainly for Phillip, their favourite genius.

To Ash, it did not seem like a battle, more like a one sided massacre. Being the third member of the PAL Elite, Phillip is powerful, yes, but to end the match with just his Emolga (with Flannery's help) in a mere 15 minutes is something else as well. It's almost as if their opponents didn't put up much of a fight.

Phillip returned to the VIP Box, and then Jude left with his Purrloin, along with Maylene, Roxanne and Bugsy.

Ash watched blankly as Jude also finished in 15 minutes flat with his Sableye alone, with all three of Maylene's Fighting Pokémon. Ash shook his head. Roxanne and Bugsy didn't really stand a chance against Jude and Maylene….Jude mainly. Since Sableye's a Dark/Ghost Pokémon, it doesn't really have any weakness…except for Fairy. He bet that Jude didn't want to show off his Mega Evolution too early, as Ash noted that he didn't Mega Evolve his Sableye. One-sided battles really gets boring after a while.

Finally, it was his turn.

"So, are you going to go now?" Rosaline asked, when Jude, Maylene, Roxanne and Bugsy returned.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, see you later." With that, he left the V.I.P Box with Pikachu and Lucario, Pikachu hiding in Ash's hood, and walked towards the entrance where he will have to enter the Arena from there.

"Lucario, I want you to watch our matches carefully, alright? This might be useful for training. I know you think you are powerful enough, but there's always room for learning."

"**Got it, Ash." **Lucario nodded.

"**Good luck, Ash." **Pikachu encouraged him.

"So, we meet again...Red." A voice said. Ash wheeled around to see Cynthia smiling at him.

"Oh, hi." Ash greeted his partner.

"So, we're partners. Let's work together to make it to the tournament rounds?" Cynthia held out a hand to shake.

Ash smiled. "Yeah." He clasped her offered hand.

'Once today's battles are over, I'm going to try and find Ash.' Cynthia thought. 'Who knows, he might be closer than I think. Maybe I can ask Champion Red for help.'

Ash, whose face is still hidden, sweat dropped. He had the ability to read others' minds via aura, and can tune thoughts off, however her thoughts are too loud for him to be able to tune it off. He turned away so that Cynthia won't suspect that he inadvertently read her thoughts.

"From the Green side, we have Leader Brock, and Leader Misty!" The two Gym Leaders walked out to the Arena waving to the audience.

"And from the Red side, we have Champion Cynthia, and Champion Red, our Silent Hero!" The crowd cheered louder for the Champions, as they walked out and took their places at the marked spot.

"This will be a six-on-six Pokémon battle, as each Trainer can use three Pokémon. Switching Pokémon is allowed, and the first side to lose all six Pokémon loses." Evan explained. "So Trainers, you may send out your Pokémon."

"Starmie, I choose you!" Misty threw a Pokeball and out came Starmie.

"Steelix, come on out!" Brock summoned his Steelix.

"Garchomp, Battle time!" Cynthia called out her Dragon.

"Leavanny, lend me your aura!" Ash's Pokeball opened to reveal the thin, yellow, bipedal insectoid Pokémon.

"Eww, eww! A bug!" Misty shrieked, ticking both Ash and Leavanny off.

"**Hey!" **Leavanny exclaimed. **"Bug Pokémon can be useful too!" **

"**Looks like she didn't change." **Pikachu mumbled.

"Leavanny, why don't we humiliate her by taking her Pokémon out in five minutes?" Ash whispered.

"**I can do it in three." **Leavanny replied. **"I'm so going to humiliate her for what she said about you and me!" **

"Battle begin!" Evan brought the red and green flags he has been holding downwards.

"Steelix, use Dragon Breath on Garchomp!" Brock called out.

"Starmie, use Gyro ball on that bug!" Misty commanded.

Ash twitched. That bug?

"**She's so going to get it." **Leavanny growled.

"**Get her, Leavanny." **Pikachu cheered from his hidden position.

"Leavanny, use X-Scissor to deflect the Gyro Ball, and follow it up with Sunny Day." Leavanny used X-Scissor to change the Gyro Ball's direction, and powered up a powerful Sunny Day.

"And look! Champion Red has used Sunny Day! What can he be planning?" The commentator and announcer, Ken asked the question that was in everyone's minds.

"Garchomp! Dodge, and use Flamethrower!" Cynthia commanded. Since Sunny Day is in effect, the Flamethrower is stronger than usual.

"Dodge the flamethrower, Steelix!" Brock called out.

"Starmie, now use Swift!" Misty commanded.

"Use Razor Leaf to counter it." Ash countered calmly. The Razor Leaf overpowered the Swift, and knocked Misty's Starmie to the ground.

"Starmie, get up!" Misty encouraged, or rather, demanded. Starmie slowly, but surely got up.

"Leavanny, use Energy Ball." Ash said. "While it's distracted, you know what to do." Leavanny nodded, and charged up an Energy Ball at a still getting up Starmie.

"Steelix, help cover Starmie by using Nature Power!" The Nature Power turned out to be Tri Attack because the battlefield is a neutral one.

"Garchomp, get in front of Leavanny and use Protect!" Garchomp got in front of a still Leavanny, who is charging up power for another move, and held both its hands out in front of it and a turquoise energy shield appears in front of it, protecting both of them from the Nature Power.

"Thanks." Ash said to Cynthia.

"No problem." She replied. "Garchomp, now use Fire blast on Steelix!"

"Now, Leavanny!" Ash called out. Leavanny jumped onto Garchomp and jumped off it, firing a Solar Beam from above at Starmie. Starmie got hit and it banged against the wall hard, sliding down, unconscious.

Meanwhile, the Fire Blast also directly hit Steelix, knocking it out.

"Starmie/Steelix, no!" Misty and Brock cried out.

"So that's what the Sunny Day was about! It was used to power up the Solar Beam, and it also powered up Garchomp's Fire Blast! Great thinking on Champion Red's part!" Ken exclaimed.

"Starmie and Steelix are unable to battle. The winners are Garchomp and Leavanny. Green side, please choose out your next Pokémon."

Ash checked his CommuniDex's stopwatch function. "Wow, two minutes and forty-two seconds, you really did keep your word, Leavanny."

"**Of course. Do you really think I'll go back on my word like those traitors?" **Leavanny looked at him incredulously, as Misty and Brock sent out Gyarados and Sudowoodo respectively.

"No, of course not." Ash laughed. "Now, why don't we give others a chance?"

"**Whatever you say, Ash." **Leavanny replied as Ash returned him.

"You can understand Pokémon language?" Cynthia asked. She had decided to stick with Garchomp.

"All of us can." Ash answered shortly.

"It looks like Champion Red has decided to switch Pokémon. What would he send out next?" Ken wondered.

"Roserade, lend me your aura!" Ash summoned the Bouquet Pokémon.

"Battle begin!" Evan said.

"Gyarados, use Dragon Dance!" Misty called out. She'll need to raise her Gyarados' Attack and Speed.

"Sudowoodo, let's use Rock Throw!" Sudowoodo slammed its thin forelegs into the ground, making rocks fly towards Roserade and Garchomp.

"Garchomp, use Dragon Claw to slice through the rocks!"

"Roserade, use Petal Blizzard to blow the rock pieces back to Sudowoodo!"

The rocks was sliced through into smaller pieces, and Roserade used Petal Blizzard to blow it back to Sudowoodo.

"Gyarados, use Thunder on the rocks before it hits Sudowoodo!" Gyarados started to charge up a Thunder.

"Oh, no you don't. Garchomp, use Sandstorm to lower Gyarado's accuracy!" Garchomp kicked up a sandstorm just as Gyarados was about to launch its move. It missed the rock pieces, and Sudowoodo was hit, dealing some damage.

"Garchomp, now hide in the Sandstorm and use Dragon Rage on Sudowoodo!" Garchomp obeyed, and it hit Sudowoodo, but Sudowoodo managed to get up.

"While the Sandstorm is on, Roserade, use Toxic Spikes, and blow the Sandstorm away from you using Petal Blizzard again." Roserade threw the Toxic Spikes at the opponents' side while they were obscured by the Sandstorm, and used Petal Blizzard to blow the Sandstorm away from her. Unfortunately, she overdid it a little, and blew the Sandstorm away from everyone.

"Now's our chance, Gyarados! Use Hyper Beam on Roserade!" Misty commanded.

"Use Grass Whistle, Roserade!" Roserade put one of her hands into her mouth and blew on it, producing a soothing melody. The musical notes hit Gyarados, and it fell to the ground, asleep, and the Hyper Beam was fired towards the ground.

"Gyarados, wake up!" Misty called out.

"Leader Misty attempts to wake Gyarados up, but to no avail. Will this be the end?" Ken commented.

"Sudowoodo, use Swagger on Garchomp!" Sudowoodo crossed its arms and looked Garchomp in an intimidating manner while glowing red, causing Garchomp to be confused as its Attack sharply rises.

Seeing that Misty's Gyarados is still asleep, Ash told Roserade to hit Garchomp on the face, since Gyarados can't get in the way. She obeyed, and Garchomp was snapped out of its confusion.

"Thanks, Red. Now, Garchomp, use Surf!"

"Sudowoodo, use Rock Slide to absorb the water!"

The Surf overpowered the Rock Slide, and Surf hit his Sudowoodo, finally fainting it.

"Sudowoodo is unable to battle!" Evan declared, as Brock retuned his Sudowoodo.

"Roserade, use Shadow Ball on Gyarados!" Ash decided to finish this round once and for all.

"Garchomp, use Flamethrower to power up the Shadow Ball!"

The Shadow Ball and Flamethrower combined, and the Shadow Ball glowed with an orange light around it, leaving orange and dark purple trails behind it, as it hit the still sleeping Gyarados, engulfing it in a purplish orange explosion. It could have passed as a Coordinator's appeal in the Grand Festival, as it looked rather pretty. Gyarados had swirls for eyes, indicating it is knocked out.

"Gyarados is unable to battle! Green side, please send out your last Pokémon."

"You lowlifes! How dare you hit a Sleeping Pokémon?" Misty yelled.

"Gee, Misty, do you expect an opponent to wait for your Pokémon to wake up before they strike? This is a battle you know, you can't be like 'Wait! Let's wait for my Pokémon to wake up before we fight!' Battles go on no matter what status condition your Pokémon acquired during battle." Ash replied calmly.

"He's right. Besides, we don't want to waste time, and there are others who want to battle." Cynthia added.

"Alright, Roserade, great job." Ash complimented.

"**Thanks, Ash." **Roserade blushed as she was returned to the Pokeball.

"Togekiss, I choose you!" He sent out the final evolved form of Togepi.

"**So, I get to battle now?" **Togekiss chirped happily.

"Yes, help me take them down, won't you?" Ash grinned.

"**Anything for you." **

"Garchomp I think it's time for you to rest." Cynthia said.

"**Sure thing." **Garchomp said, although only Ash can understand it. Cynthia switched her Pokémon out, and replaced Garchomp with Spiritomb.

Misty snarled at them, and sent out her last Pokémon, Politoed, while Brock sent out his Marshtomp. However, as soon as their feet touched the floor, they glowed purple, indicating they are poisoned. There is also a pressurized expression on them for a second, which meant that Spiritomb is exerting its Pressure.

"What th-?" Misty and Brock shouted in shock. "How?"

'I nearly forgot about the toxic spikes I placed. Oh well.' Ash shrugged.

"It looks like Champion Red's Toxic Spikes are in effect! Champion Red is always one step ahead in battle!" Ken cried, to audience's cheers.

"Ugh, no matter! Politoed, use Hypnosis on Togekiss and Garchomp!" What Misty failed to notice was Politoed seemed to need more energy than usual to execute the move.

"Togekiss, use Metronome!" Togekiss waved its arms back and forth until they begin to glow white, and performed Safeguard, protecting from Hypnosis.

"Spiritomb, use Shadow Sneak!" Spiritomb extended its shadow towards Marshtomp.

"Dodge it, Marshtomp, and use Earthquake!"

"Sorry, Brock, no can do. Togekiss, use Sunny Day to help power up Shadow Sneak!" Togekiss increased the intensity of the sunlight, and caused multiple shadows to appear and stretch out from Spiritomb. Although Spiritomb wasn't able to hit Marshtomp, it unintentionally hit Politoed. Politoed staggered backwards, glowing purple.

"Politoed, snap out of it! Use Scald!" Misty was desperate for this to end.

"Togekiss, counter with Psychic!" The Scald Attack was blasted back to Politoed.

"Spiritomb, use Curse on Marshtomp!" As a Ghost type, Curse works differently. Instead of cutting Speed to raise Attack and Defense, it slowly loses ¼ of its maximum HP at the end of each turn, at the expense of half the user's HP. Spiritomb had a pained look on its face, which meant that its HP has been cut by the move.

Brock gritted his teeth. He only had at most four moves left before Marshtomp's health depletes to zero. Also, there's the Poison condition to consider.

"Marshtomp, use Blizzard!"

"Politoed, use Scald one more time!" Although Politoed was tired from the energy drain and poison, it still charged up a Scald. The attacks combined, and it became water bullets.

"Spiritomb, use Ominous Wind!"

"Togekiss, use Hyper Beam!"

The Hyper Beam was covered by Ominous Wind, and the Hyper Beam was shrouded in purple. The combination was enough to overpower the water bullets, and hit Misty's and Brock's Pokémon. Since they were poisoned and pressurized (and cursed in Marshtomp's case), both of them fainted.

"Marshtomp and Politoed are unable to battle. The winners are Champion Cynthia and Champion Red!"

The crowd went nuts, and was cheering for the winners. Misty and Brock glared at them before returning their Pokémon and left.

* * *

><p>"Oh My God, you were amazing, Red!" Rosaline cheered. "Did you see the looks on their faces when they lost?"<p>

"**You are amazing as usual, Ash." **Lucario said.

"**I'll never forget the looks on their faces for the rest of our lives!" **Pikachu giggled.

"You really think ahead of battles, don't you?" Phillip smiled. His Emolga was also cheering for his victory, along with Purrloin, Espeon, Sylveon, Skitty, Pikachu and Lucario.

"When it comes to Pokémon battle strategies, you're a genius!" Jude pumped his fist in the air.

"Thanks, guys." Ash replied. He turned to his Leader, who was preparing to leave for the Arena.

"Well….good luck." Ash told his Leader.

Pakura nodded, and left the V.I.P Box without another word, Sylveon following her, along with Lance and Whitney.

"I wonder how she would do." Ash wondered to himself, sitting down on the front row seat.

"**She'll be fine." **Pikachu replied. **"Wasn't she the only one who made you use all six of your Pokémon during the challenge? Besides, her partner is Lance, he's pretty strong himself. They practically got the match in the bag." **

"If you say so." Ash said, turning back to watch the match.

"From the Green Side, we have Leader Whitney and the Princess of Hoenn, May!" Ash watched as Whitney and May walked out, waving to the crowd. "And from the Red Side, we have Elite Four and Champion Lance, with Elite Four and our favourite, or at least my favourite…" Here, the audience chuckled, "Princess of PAL, Pakura!"

Lance looked at Pakura strangely. That's her nickname? They walked out to the battlefield, and faced their opponents.

"There can't be two Princesses! There's only one true Princess, and that's me!" May shouted at Pakura. "I'm good at both Coordinating and battling, so watch out!"

Pakura did not even bother to answer back, which frustrated May. She isn't really interested in her opponents, as she had defeated Whitney before during an official Gym Battle years ago. Also, May is not really a good battler, from what she heard from Ash. She just wants to get her battle over and done with, so she can go to do better stuff than stand here and listen to some moron rambling about her 'skills'.

"We'll target the girl. Lance is too strong for us." Whitney whispered. May nodded.

"Trainers, send out your Pokémon!" Evan told the four of them.

"Venusaur, spotlight!" May summoned her Grass/Poison type Kanto starter.

"Delcatty, I choose you!" Whitney called out her Prim Pokémon.

"Dragonite, battle time!" Lance chose his ever faithful partner Pokémon.

"Let's go, Jynx!" Pakura threw her Pokeball, and out came the Human Shape Pokémon.

'Hopefully, Jynx is enough to take their Pokémon out. She's my weakest Pokémon after all.' Pakura thought. She looked down on Sylveon, who was sitting next to her as support. Sylveon nodded to her.

"Delcatty, use Attract on Dragonite!" Whitney cried out. The Attract move is impossible to dodge, and by distracting him, they can take out Jynx. Delcatty winked, and multiple pink hearts flew out towards their opponent.

"Venusaur, use Petal Dance on Jynx."

Before Lance could react, Pakura already gave a command. "Use Attract to repel Delcatty's Attract, followed by Blizzard to counter Petal Dance." Jynx winked, and pink hearts flew out, hitting all of Delcatty's hearts, successfully repelling it. Jynx then charged up a blizzard, and blew the petals back to Venusaur. Since it is part grass, it is super effective.

"Dragonite, use Flamethrower on Delcatty!" Dragonite charged up a Flamethrower, and unleashed it towards Delcatty.

"Dodge it, Delcatty, and use Assist on Jynx!" The Assist turned out to be…..Splash attack. The audience face faulted at that.

"Help Delcatty put by using Poison Powder on Jynx!"

"Dragonite, use Hurricane to blow the Poison Powder away." The Hurricane managed to blow it away, and inflict damage on Venusaur.

"Jynx, you use Frost Breath….try not to hit Dragonite." Pakura added as an afterthought.

* * *

><p>(At the V.I.P Box)<p>

"Is it just me, or are Whitney and May seem to be targeting Pakura only?" Jude asked his Elites.

"**How low of them!" **Purrloin growled.

"Seems to me they knew they can't take on Lance, so that's why they settle for Pakura, since they don't know about her battling skills." Ash replied, as he watched Lance's Dragonite struggling to get an attack on them, only for them to dodge, and attack Jynx again.

'How are you going to handle this, Paku?' Ash thought. He leaned forwards in his seat. This is definitely getting interesting.

* * *

><p>"Delcatty and Venusaur are unable to battle! Green Side, please send out your next Pokémon!"<p>

"Clefable, I choose you!"

"Beautifly, spotlight!"

"Clefable, use Sing!" Whitney called out. Clefable started singing, and musical notes emitted from its mouth.

'I highly doubt Leader Whitney knows that her Clefable is now a Fairy type, since it was a Normal type and she is a Normal type specialist. If only she did her research, she might have first used Disarming Voice, or Moonblast to take out Dragonite, if she wants to target me specifically.' Pakura thought, mentally face palming.

"Beautifly, use Silver Wind to blow the notes to Jynx!" Beautifly flapped its wings and a wind with silver crescents in it hit the notes, increasing the speed of the musical notes going towards Jynx.

"Jynx, use Safegaurd." Jynx's Safeguard was strong enough to cover both Dragonite and her, deflecting the song notes.

'Stop targeting me already.' Pakura thought, mentally sighing, figuring out the opponents' strategy.

"Dragonite, use Hyper Beam!"

"Clefable, Ice Beam to counter the Hyper Beam!" The Hyper Beam, however, overpowered the Ice Beam easily, and Clefable fell to Whitney's feet moments later. Clefable is struggling to get up now.

"Beautifly, use Gust on Jynx!"

* * *

><p>(V.I.P Box)<p>

"This is no longer a tag battle. This is a two-on-one battle!" Steven exclaimed, watching Pakura react to another one of Clefable and Beautifly's attacks directed at Jynx, while simply asking their Pokemon to dodge Dragonite's attacks. "They are ignoring Dragonite, just dodging or deflecting his attacks, and only went offensive for Jynx! Pakura ended up doing all the work!"

"Yeah, what are they trying to do?" Cynthia wondered.

"Who knows?" Alder shrugged. "Maybe because Lance is too powerful, and went for Pakura, since they don't know the extent of her battling skills?"

"Will they ever learn? I thought they figured out by now that Pakura is a better battler than even Lance." Phillip asked in disbelief at the front row seats.

"May isn't one of the smartest unfortunately." Ash replied. 'And from what I heard, Whitney has a tendency to cry and throw a tantrum when she loses. Such a kid. Wait, I'm turning into Iris. I'm not that Dragon Master Wannabe. How should I phrase this? Oh yeah. Quite immature for her age.' He talked to his Pokémon via telepathy, as it would look odd talking to them verbally in front of the other Elites who don't understand Pokéspeech.

Pikachu and Lucario sniggered as they received his telepathy message.

"At this rate, Pakura's going to get angry that Lance is not helping!" Jude cried.

* * *

><p>"Let's end this quickly. Clefable, Ice Beam at Jynx!"<p>

"Help out Clefable by firing a Shadow Ball in Ice Beam!"

"Dragonite, twister!"

"Jynx, fire a Hyper Beam in Dragonite's twister."

The two combined attacks clashed in the middle, and Ash watched as Pakura and Lance's combined attack overpowered May and Whitney's in a short time, and both combo attacks hit Beautifly and Clefable. They were knocked out in an instant.

"Beautifly and Clefable are unable to battle. Green Trainers, send out your last Pokémon."

* * *

><p>(Back to the V.I.P Box)<p>

"There goes Round Two." Shauntal commented. "Just one more to go."

"Pakura can definitely win this with her Jynx alone, although Jynx is her weakest Pokémon." Rosaline said confidently.

"I don't know. It's well known that Whitney's strongest Pokémon is Miltank, and I bet my Elite status that that is her last Pokémon." Phoebe replied with doubt in her voice. Sure enough, when Whitney sent out her last Pokémon, it was a Miltank, while May sent out her Munchlax.

* * *

><p>"There must be a way to hit them even if they keep asking their Pokémon to dodge, but how?" Lance was getting frustrated. "I have to find out a way."<p>

"You know what? I distract them and you hit them when their attention is away from you." Pakura folded her arms.

"Sounds like a plan." Lance answered. "Ok, let's try."

"But be careful of where my Pokémon is before you call an attack."

"Yeah, alright."

"Munchlax, use Metronome!"

Metronome turned out to be Fairy Wind, although only Pakura knew what move Munchlax just made.

"Jynx, dodge and use Psychic, followed by Perish Song on Miltank!" Jynx jumped, and her eyes glow light blue, preventing Miltank from escaping. She then released crimson soundwaves from her mouth at Miltank hitting it. It looked like Miltank wasn't affected once it got hit, but everyone knew Miltank only had three moves before it faints.

"Munchlax, use Shadow Ball on Jynx!"

"Now, Dragonite! Use Aerial Ace on Munchlax!"

"What? Lance, no!" Pakura saw that if Munchlax dodged, it will hit Jynx since Jynx is directly in front of Munchlax, so she tried to stop him, but it was too late.

"Dodge, Munchlax!" Sure enough, Munchlax dodged, and the Aerial Ace hit Jynx on the head, sending her flying, and against the wall. She now had swirls for eyes.

"Jynx is unable to battle!" Evan declared.

"Alright!" Whitney and May hi-fived.

Pakura stared at her fainted Jynx in silence, before returning her to her Pokeball without another word. She turned to her partner with an unreadable expression.

"Before the battle, I said, watch out for my Pokémon's position before you call out an attack. And look what you did." She sighed. "You are really no help, you useless deadweight." The funny thing is, Pakura said this tonelessly, and no one could tell if she is really angry or not.

Lance looked at her, dumbfounded. Did she just call him useless deadweight?

"I'm not useless!" He spluttered, when what she said finally registered. Who calls a Leader of Kanto Elite, Champion of Johto Elite, and member of G-men useless anyway?

"Yes you are." Pakura shot back. "You did nearly nothing to take down their four Pokémon."

"Is it my fault they are aiming their attacks at you?" Lance was ticked off.

"Yes, because you didn't do anything to help, and you even fainted my Jynx when you tried to help. If that's not useless I don't know what is." Pakura replied bluntly.

* * *

><p>There was absolute silence the moment Pakura called Lance "useless deadweight". Most of them, including Ash's Elite, and Ash himself, were stunned. All of them were thinking, 'Wow she is pissed off.'<p>

"Ouch, that's gonna burn!" Will broke the silence by laughing at the new nickname Lance got.

"You got that right!" Lucian was also snickering. Shauntal was giggling as well.

"Well, I can't blame her. I'd be angry too, if my partner who is supposed to help me instead fainted my Pokémon by calling out a move without looking at where my Pokémon is." Wallace remarked.

"Hey! Keep your words to yourself! Lance didn't do anything to harm you!" Aaron shouted to the battlefield. Although Lance didn't hear him, Pakura did, thanks to her physical enhancements.

Pakura ignored him, and was about to say more, when Sylveon's feelers wrapped around her arms, and she sent a serene aura into her. She could almost hear Sylveon's pleas for her to stop. Pakura calmed down, but still frowned at her partner.

"Are you finished, Princess?" Evan asked her, when she fell silent.

"Yes, Evan." Pakura replied calmly, and turned to her opponents. "Now you really made me mad. Come on out." She brushed her hair aside, and her hidden Skitty hopped out onto the battlefield.

"Hey! Is that my Skitty?" May cried out, enraged.

"No." Pakura raised an eyebrow.

"You liar! That is my Skitty, isn't it? Give her back!" May demanded.

"Just because you owned one doesn't mean I can't own one too." Pakura said monotonously. "Skitty, use Play Rough on Munchlax."

May didn't call out an attack, expecting Skitty to have second thoughts, but Skitty attacked Munchlax without hesitation leaving her shocked.

"That's not very nice!" May wailed. She was sure this is her Skitty. How can her Skitty turn against her?

"**You deserved it after what you did to Ash!" **Skitty hissed.

"Dragonite, use Thunder Wave on Miltank to intercept it!" Lance had decided to attack Whitney's Miltank.

"Miltank, use Rollout to dodge!"

"Now! Use Wing Attack!"

"Defence Curl!" The Wing Attack clashed with Miltank's Defence Curl, and managed to slam Miltank to the ground.

"Use Dragon Pulse!"

"Miltank, dodge and use Body Slam on Skitty!" However, as soon as Miltank executed the move, she glowed red, and fell to the ground with swirls in her eyes. Everyone had evidently forgotten that Jynx's Perish Song was still in effect.

"Miltank, No!" Whitney was in the verge of tears.

"Miltank is unable to battle."

"Oh, what's this? Jynx's previous Perish Song is clearly taking effect, which led to Miltank's downfall! Smart move on Pakura's part." Ken commented in the mic. "Oh look! PAL Princess Pakura and Hoenn Princess May are still fighting it out!"

"Munchlax, Solar Beam." May sounded reluctant to hit Skitty, but she is the only one left in the battle.

"Skitty, use Ice Beam on the ground!" Munchlax slipped and misfired the Solar Beam, and SKitty finished it off with Assist, which turned out to be Brick Break, which is Super Effective against Normal types.

"Munchlax is now unable to battle. The winners are Champion Lance and Elite Pakura!"

Whitney, as usual started crying, while May tried to comfort her. Pakura looked at her in disgust.

"Why did you make her a Gym Leader?" She asked Lance.

"I did not, the Pokémon League did!" He protested.

"Well, you could've fooled me, considering how useless you were during the battle." With those parting words, she swept out of the stadium with Sylveon and Skitty, who hopped onto her shoulder, presumably towards the V.I.P Box. Lance stared after her with a mix of surprise and anger. After a few moments, he left as well, not towards the V.I.P Box, but towards the forest he and Clair walked through the previous night.

* * *

><p>Quite the contrary, Pakura didn't return to the V.I.P Box. No one knew where she disappeared off to. However, to the PAL Elites, especially Ash, this isn't unusual, and they knew Pakura always goes away without telling them and would show up later.<p>

* * *

><p>"It's your turn, Rosaline." Ash said. Rosaline stood up, and looked around for Pakura, but no sign of her.<p>

"When do you think she'd turn up?"

"She'll turn up." Ash replied dismissively. "Now just go to your match."

Rosaline nodded, and went to the front of the entrance of the battlefield, her Espeon following behind.

"Hello, girl from yesterday." A voice said behind her. Rosaline turned to Grimsley who is smiling at her.

"Hello, creep who tried to hit on me." Rosaline countered. Espeon took a defensive stance.

Grimsley gave a mock gasp and held a hand to his heart. "You wound me." He replied in a smooth voice.

Rosaline opened her mouth to say something, but the announcer called out, "From Green Side, we have Coordinator Dawn, with Leader Burgh, and from the Red side, we have Elite Rosaline and Elite Grimsley." She then turned, and walked out to the battlefield with Espeon at her side.

"Trainers please send out your first Pokémon!"

"Alright, Mamoswine, spotlight!" Dawn's Twin Tusk Pokémon materialised out of its Pokeball.

"Dwebble, I choose you!" Dwebble appeared next to Mamoswine, battle ready.

"Let's do it, Rapidash!" Rosaline called out her Rapidash.

"Let's fight, Drapion!" Grimsley summoned his Drapion.

"Both side ready?" Evan asked the four of them. All four of them nodded. "Ready….battle begin!"

"Mamoswine, start off with Powder Snow!" Dawn commanded. Her Pokemon started shaking his nose and blue powder came out of it towards their opponents

"Dwebble, use X-Scissor!" Dwebble charged towards them, claws glowing ready to use X-Scissor

"Rapidash, Ember to melt the Powder Snow!" Rapidash opened her mouth and shot round balls of fire at the powder, melting it to water.

"Drapion, use Bite to stop Dwebble on its tracks!" Drapion bit Dwebble on the shell, preventing it from moving.

"Mamoswine, Earthquake to get Drapion off Dwebble!"

"Are you an idiot? Earthquake damages everyone, including your partner! Do you want your partner to be out of this battle?" Rosaline shouted, face-palming.

"Oh yeah." Dawn replied, sticking out her tongue slightly. "Opps. Then, Mamoswine, use Ice Fang on Drapion." Mamoswine charged towards its target, not caring about anything else.

"Rapidash, help Drapion out by using Flamethrower!" Rapidash used Flamethrower on Mamoswine. Mamoswine, not seeing the Flamethrower, got hit, and fell down with burns all over its body.

"What's this? It looks like Rosaline used the opportunity to use Flamethrower while Mamoswine is distracted. Sneaky move on her part." Ken commented.

"Drapion use Crunch!" Drapion used Crunch on Dwebble, dealing damage. Drapion then threw Dwebble next to a still getting up Mamoswine.

* * *

><p>(VIP Box, 5 minutes later.)<p>

Ash watched as Rosaline ordered Overheat and Grimsley telling his Pokémon to use a Thunder Fang, easily taking out Mamoswine and Dwebble respectively.

He heard Evan announce that Mamoswine and Dwebble are unable to battle and requested for Dawn and Burgh to send in their next Pokémon, and they sent in Quilava and Leavanny respectively. Rosaline switched to Delphox, and Grimsley changed to Bisharp.

"**Rosaline sure is doing well." **said Lucario.

"**She certainly is." **Pikachu replied, leaning out to see the match better.

Ash felt a sudden unease prickling at the back of his neck, and turned to see Cynthia staring at him instead of at the match. She had her eyes slightly narrowed. He then noticed one horrifying thing- the tip of Pikachu's right ear is sticking slightly out of his cloak.

'Pikachu, just come out.' Ash sighed. 'Cynthia saw your ears.'

Pikachu sighed, and hopped out onto Ash's lap, surprising many of the other Elites.

"You have a Pikachu?" Lorelei asked.

Jude and Phillip exchanged "Uh-oh" looks.

"Oh yeah." Ash replied, petting it. "I like keeping it out of my Pokeball, and I want to keep it as my secret weapon in the tournament, that's why it's been hiding. Looks like my secret's out though." He chuckled at the last sentence.

The others nodded, satisfied at his answer.

All but one Sinnoh Champion that is.

'Why does that Pikachu have a familiar air about it?' She thought. She'll get to the bottom of this.

* * *

><p>'The mist is so thick! I can't see a thing!' thought a certain Johto Champion. He sighed, knowing he had walked too deep into the woods, and now he's lost. 'And it's really cold here!' He wrapped his cape tighter to him.<p>

Something caught his eye among the mist. He squinted- and saw the entrance of a cave.

"Well, it's my best chance." Lance muttered to himself, taking his steps towards the entrance. There was a voice, not his, that told him to stay away, but something about this cave drew him closer, drowning out the foreign voice in his head.

He entered the cave, and raised his eyebrows. It was much larger than it looks outside, and it could have passed for a living space, for it had a campfire in it, a sleeping bag, a table that looked like it was used for making herbs and storing first aid items on, another table that were laden with cakes and bread, a work table that had tools on it, a sewing station, a few target boards that had arrows and knives stuck to it, a well for water, an oven, some plants that grows berries and fruits, and various other necessities. Leaning to the side of the cave was a hot pink bicycle, and next to it was a black bow with a few sheaths of arrows.

There were light footsteps, and Lance found himself staring at a familiar Pokémon. The Pokémon had slender legs and dainty paws and has lilac fur. Its ears are large, and it has purple eyes with white pupils. There are tufts of fur near its eyes, and a small, red gem embedded in its forehead. It also has a thin, forked tail. At first he thought it was Rosaline's Espeon, but remembered she is at the VIP Box back at the Battle Arena, and this Espeon is bigger than hers.

The Espeon narrowed its eyes at him, and ran back to where it came from. Lance looked on in confusion, and the next moment, he was slammed against the cave wall, and something cold and sharp was pressed against his throat.

"Tell me how you got here right now!" The person hissed, pressing the sword against his throat.

"Was I intruding? I'm sorry. It's just that I was drawn to this cave, despite the voice in my head telling me not to enter." Lance knew he sounded stupid to the person right now, but surprisingly, the person lowered the sword.

"Oh really? You were drawn to the cave?" The person's voice softened considerably, stepping back from him. Lance took this opportunity to look at the person's full profile, and realised the person was female. The female had long black hair cascaded down her back with bangs covering her eyes, so he could not tell her eye colour. On her head was a platinum tiara, decorated with various jewels, such as rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls, topaz, amethyst, and diamonds.

She was wearing a red off the shoulder formal gown, with a pale red sash around her waist, and the sash was decorated with gold dragons. The extra cloth in front of the bottom part of the gown was also decorated with draconic patterns. On her neck was a black choker with a gem embedded into it. When Lance examined carefully, a drawing of Latias and Latios could be seen at her choker, with the gem in between them.

"I apologize for the sudden attack I sprang on you." The girl curtseyed. "Espeon told me there was an intruder, and my first instinct was to attack. Allow me to introduce myself. People didn't use my name at all, since they called me the Dragon Princess."

"That's alright….wait? Dragon Princess? The Legendary Dragon Princess?" Lance asked, eyes wide.

Princess nodded.

"It's an honour to meet you, Princess." Lance bowed to her. "I'm Lance, a Dragon Trainer from Blackthorn."

"Oh no, the pleasure's mine, considering you're the Kanto Elite Leader and the Johto Champion." Princess smiled at his astonished look. "Follow me." She beckoned to him, and led him to a small table and a few chairs.

"Sit down, I'll be back." Princess instructed warmly, before moving away.

Lance looked around, and found himself in a company of various Pokémon, which are currently sleeping. He recognised most of the Dragon and Psychic Pokémon, but there are other Pokémon which he did not even recognise.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Two cups of tea and a plate of chocolate chip cookies were set on the table. "Drink up. The mist must be cold."

Lance thanked her, and sipped his tea, which warmed him up and ate a cookie, which was really tasty.

"I'm sorry. I was a bit surprised you managed to get in my cave. Usually, only true Dragon masters can see my cave through this mist. However, the mist also contains strong psychic power that compels anybody who can see it to ignore it. And yet, you didn't. I'm impressed."

"Wait a minute, that was psychic power?" Lance asked, surprised. Princess nodded.

"By now, you must have figured out I specialise in Dragon/Psychic Pokémon, and I love them very much. I believe the Psychic power helps me in my Dragon training, hence my Psychic specialisation." She sat across from him. "So, what brings the Leader of the Kanto Elite, and Champion of the Johto Elite to my humble abode?" Princess asked.

"Well, I had an argument with someone and had to calm down." Lance mumbled.

"Really? Tell me about it." Princess coaxed gently.

Lance didn't know why but he started pouring out what happened during the first match to a person he just met, and the part that Pakura called him a useless deadweight because he couldn't help that both opponents were targeting her and how he used Aerial Ace on Munchlax but dodged, hitting Jynx instead, fainting it, which caused her to start calling him useless deadweight. He also added that she couldn't even get his type specialty right, thinking he was a Flying-type specialist.

Princess listened to all these without interrupting, only occasionally sipping her tea or munching a cookie.

"I can see why you are angry about all this." Princess said, once he had finished. "It's natural of course, for a person to be angry when both opponents are targeting one person, which is a coward's way I might add, and the partner isn't helping much. That's how Pakura probably must feel when she fought those girls. The anger accumulated, and your Aerial Ace fainting her Jynx is most likely the last straw."

"I know, I tried to help her, but it all went wrong!" Lance protested.

"I'm not saying what you did is wrong. It's an accident after all." The Princess continued calmly. "I'm just saying, the person can say or do rash things out of anger. Hence, your new nickname. As for your Pokémon, from the rumours I hear, you own more Flying Pokémon than Dragon, hence her 'mistake'." The way she emphasized on the last word, Lance knew that she suspected Pakura made this mistake on purpose.

Lance stayed silent. She had a point there.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Princess enquired.

"I guess I'm going to try to work with her. There's at least one more match we have to win before we can get to the Top 128. After that I'll avoid her."

"Whatever suits you, I suppose." Princess shrugged. "I can't tell you what to do, I can only advise you.

"Some Princess she turned out to be. How did they differentiate you from her, since both of you are called Princess?" Lance was confused at this.

"Simple. I disappeared, she didn't. So when they call Princess, they are referring to the one that didn't disappear. If they were to address me, they simply say 'The Legendary Dragon Duo', since we both disappeared at the same time, but of course only you know I'm still here."

Lance finished his tea, and took the last cookie. "I see. I better go, there are still a few matches going on and I want to watch it. Can I come again?" Although he spent only a very short time here, he took a quick liking to this place and he still had many things he wanted to ask her.

"If you want to you can, in the condition you keep me a secret." Princess replied dismissively. "I'll teleport you back to the Battle Arena."

* * *

><p>"Delphox, use Fire Blast on Leavanny!" Rosaline commanded.<p>

"Bisharp, finish Quilava with Aerial Ace!"

Both the attacks finished the tired opposing Pokémon off.

"Quilava and Leavanny are unable to battle!" Evan declared. "Trainers, please send out your last Pokémon!"

"That was pretty quick. It only took 4 moves each from those two." Jude remarked.

"Togekiss, spotlight!" Dawn sent out Princess Salvia's former Togekiss, while Burgh summoned his Whirlipede.

However, something unexpected happened. The moment Togekiss was sent out, it snatched her Pokeball away from Dawn, and flew away, presumably to Princess Salvia, forcing Burgh to fight himself, since the referee declared Togekiss unwilling to battle. Ash knew that Togekiss most likely found out of the betrayal, and was waiting for the right time to leave Dawn at the most humiliating timing, which succeeded because Dawn was close to tears.

Even Grimsley and Rosaline appeared startled at Togekiss' sudden exit.

Ken announced his shock about the turn in events over the microphone.

"What happened?" Lance entered the VIP Box. He had landed outside the Battle Arena when the Dragon Princess Teleported him out of the forest.

"Woah, where were you?" Bruno asked. He looked considerably calmed down from half an hour earlier. Some of the Elites and Gym Leaders hid their laughter behind their hands as they remembered his new nickname.

"Taking a walk." Scanning the Box, he saw that Pakura isn't there.

"Ok, where is she?" He didn't really want to say her name.

"Like you, Pakura didn't return to the VIP Box after the match." Sidney shrugged. "Who knows where she is now."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry if I were you." Phillip spoke up. "She's always like that, going somewhere without telling us." He turned back to watch Rosaline and Grimsley easily finishing Whirlipede when Delphox used Mystical Fire on Bisharp's Metal Claw, turning the attack to a fire type, and slashing Whirlipede with it.

"Whirlipede is unable to battle! Elites Grimsley and Rosaline wins!"

"It looks like Burgh was overwhelmed by the combined power of two Elite members!" Ken announced. "With this in mind, Elites Grimsley and Rosaline now need one more win to enter the Top 128!"

Dawn quickly exited the field to get away from the humiliation of the loss of her Togekiss.

* * *

><p>"Huh? She's not back yet?" Rosaline asked disappointedly, as she entered the VIP Box with Grimsley and Burgh.<p>

"Unfortunately, no." Ash confirmed.

Shortly after, Ash received a message on his CommuniDex. It was Pakura. She had sent over a video.

'Wonder why she would send me a video?' Ash thought, beckoning to his Elites so they could go to one corner and watch.

(Video Play)

"_I can't believe that Elite girl stole my Skitty! That corrupted bitch! I swear I'll make her pay! How did she become Princess of PAL when she's corrupted is beyond me!" May was ranting to Trip, Iris, Max, Brock, Misty and Cilan as she tried on her dress for the upcoming PAL Contest. She was convinced that it was her Skitty. They apparently left to go there following Dawn's defeat to get new outfits for May and Dawn, and most likely to cheer the latter up at the same time, since Iris and Cilan aren't scheduled to fight until after lunch break. _

"_I know, and I suspect the other Elites may have our other missing Pokémon too. Especially that Phillip guy, he has an Emolga. It could have been mine for all I know." Iris agreed. "We got to have a plan to steal them back. Am I right Dawn?" She turned to Dawn, who was glumly reading a magazine at one of the couches. _

"_Huh?" Dawn looked up. "Oh, yeah." She looked back down at her magazine. _

_Brock went to comfort her. "Hey, cheer up. Maybe you can shine like a star in the Contest." _

"_Not if I can say about it." May said good-naturedly, and Dawn forced a laugh, looking down at her magazine._

"_No, this won't do." May continued, looking at the latest dress in the mirror. "What should I try on next?" _

_Then, a dress a headless mannequin was wearing caught her eye. It was the softest blue imaginable, and was covered all over in sparkling blue beading. It was off the shoulder with a sweetheart neckline, and the filmy skirt reached just below the knees. _

_May gasped. This dress is the most beautiful she had ever seen, and it was practically made for her. It would definitely fit her like a glove. _

"_Excuse me, can I try on that dress?" May asked the store clerk, pointing to the blue dress. _

"_Sorry, that dress is reserved." The store clerk replied. _

"_What do you mean reserved?" May demanded. _

"_It's reserved for one of the judges for the PAL Contest. I apologize, but this is not for sale." The store clerk answered as best as she could. _

_May huffed, and went to the other racks, and grabbed random dresses, before dragging Dawn to standing position, and pushing her towards the dressing room. "Stop moping and select a dress already!" Dawn looked uncertain as she went in the dressing room with the bundle of clothes. _

"_About our Pokémon, we first see what Pokémon that was same as our missing ones do they own, and once we do, we expose them with evidence, and they would most likely lose their positions, and we might get them back!" Max suggested. _

"_Besides, I don't like that Red Satoshi's attitude, anyway." Trip said. _

"_Yes! His attitude stinks!" Misty shouted, causing the salespeople in the store to shush her. _

"_Yeah, good idea. Do you think we should look into the Pokémon type that our missing Pokémon has, and see which Elite specialises in that type?" Cilan spoke up. "It's most likely that the Pokémon went to the respective type specialty of the Trainer." _

"_Great idea, Cilan!" May clapped her hands in glee. "And once I get my Skitty, Glaceon, and Blaziken back, they are most likely more powerful than ever, and I might win more contests and battles in the future! Maybe they'll ask Pakura to give up that Sylveon to me too, that Pokémon is really cute and beautiful." May sighed in her daydream. _

_The others made noises of assent. They assigned roles, where Misty and Brock to observe Red, Trip to spy on Phillip, Max to check on Rosaline, Iris and Cilan to watch Jude, and May and Dawn to follow Pakura. _

(End Video)

The video was attached with a message.

_If it wasn't for the fact that my personal stylist asked me to go over there to prepare for my appearance at the PAL Contest, I wouldn't even bother going to the same place as those vermin. Thought you'd might like to see this. –Pakura._

"Well, at least we know where she has been." Jude remarked.

"So they are trying to find out what Pokémon of theirs we have, and steal them, right?" Phillip whispered.

Rosaline nodded. "They are not sure if it's their so they would try to find out our full team, and piece two and two together."

Ash sighed. Would those traitors ever learn?

"**What do you think we should do?"** Pikachu asked.

"Honestly? That's just a minor worry." Ash mumbled. "If I'm right, something will happen to them before they can even act on their plan."

"Guess so. Oh well, let's just go for lunch."

A pair of grey eyes watched the PAL Elite, and the owner of those eyes secretly went to follow them, specifically Red, ignoring Alder's invitations for a meal or at least a cup of tea.

* * *

><p>"Max? Where did you place the hotel keys?" May demanded. All of them were standing outside their hotel rooms, locked out because their hotel keys were missing. They planned to go to their rooms and order Room Service.<p>

"I swear they were in my pocket!" Her brother protested, searching desperately for the keys.

"If we don't find the keys, the concierge is gonna kick us out!" Cilan warned him. "Remember what he said?"

Max sighed. "I know. He said that the keys are expensive to make, and he's only lending it to us for free since we are tournament participants, so if we lose one key, we either pay the cost of a replacement key, which we can't afford, or we get kicked out, and we'll have to live in the Pokémon Center rooms."

"I'm hungry." Iris whined. Trip rolled his eyes.

"Just hurry up and find the key! We're wasting time!" Misty yelled. She isn't in a particularly good mood since the battle with Red and Cynthia.

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to them, those traitors are definitely going to have to reside in the Pokémon Center rooms.<p>

"Good job, Klefki." A voice said. The owner of the voice was smirking.

"**No problem." **Klefki replied.

On her owner's hands were four hotel keys.

**BP: Ok, a lot of explaining needs to be done here. (Please read this)**

**Why I let Ash overhear the conversation between Lance and Clair is because Ash would be the one to find out who exactly killed the Dragon Clan's Elders and set an eternal blizzard to Blackthorn City. (No, it's not like Elsa's winter in Frozen. It's a severe snowstorm, much harsher than a simple winter, and who ever set this did it on purpose instead of being an accident, and unlike Elsa, this person can control his/her ice powers well. Why I chose a blizzard weather? It's because Dragon is weak to ice. Yes, the person who did this held a grudge against Blackthorn City.)**

**I'm also not very forgiving towards traitors, especially if one is their own family, but since my friend (mysterypink98) doesn't think of her as all bad, we thought of a compromise- she disappears, leaving her fate as ambiguous. Ash wasn't told because they don't want Ash's emotions to affect his abilities as he took on the Elite challenge. Second, when he became Champion, he became way too busy and had no time to talk to them properly until the tournament. **

**Why I gave referee and announcer names is because I don't want them to be called "the referee" or "the announcer" all the time. **

**Since Ash is the main character, only his battles are shown in full. The glimpses of the two other Elites (Pakura and Rosaline) are only the parts Ash found interesting while watching their matches. If you want full battles for a specific character form next chapter onwards, please tell me in PM. **

**The Dragon Princess scene is originally supposed to be happening off screen/deleted scene, but my best friend wanted it to happen in the story itself, that's why I put it there. Please don't say it's nothing to do with Ash. I admit, for now it doesn't, but eventually, Ash would get involved, and find out the actual fate of the Dragon Duo, and why they disappeared. Why I chose Lance to meet the Princess would be explained in later chapters. I don't know if I should write anymore scenes like this, since this is going to be regular. If you guys didn't like it, I won't write it again in future chapters. **

**The Dragon Princess' real name would remain a secret until later. No, Ash is not part of the Dragon Duo. **

**Pakura is called the Princess of PAL is because of the way the PAL citizens view her as. How they view her would be revealed in later chapters. Why she is seemingly apart from the other Elites would also be known later. Sad to say, she preferred doing things by herself rather than working with others….and that includes even her own Elites, which means she already saw Lance as a burden even before the match has started, but did not say anything until her Jynx fainted due to a missed Aerial Ace on his part. **

**So as not to confuse readers, Pakura's nickname would not be used when mentioning the Dragon Princess, and vice versa. **

**Tag Pairings were decided for some, and others, I picked names while I closed my eyes, and whoever's name my finger landed on was the partner. **

**And since I'm not very good at writing long battles (I never wrote Pokémon battles before), that's why most are pretty short. Don't worry, I'll try to write longer ones as the tournament goes by, since the battles are likely to be more intense. **

**Why didn't I let Dawn's Togekiss defect to Ash? Well, the reason is simple: as much as I like Dawn's Togekiss, I can't exactly see her battling, her grace is more like contest-only, and so I let her return to Princess Salvia (since it's originally hers) at the most humiliating timing- during battle in front of everyone. Besides, I already let Ash have his own Togekiss that is more interested in battle. **

**For the mysteries revolving around PAL, somehow, Ash would get dragged inside, and as Champion, will be forced to find out who caused all these and why is the person causing them. **

**I'm sorry if the TR trio (JJM), and Paul, Gary and Tracey aren't getting their share of spotlight. I promise I'll work on that, because they are major supporting characters instead of being the deuteragonist, and tritagonist, these two roles belonging to two of the PAL Elite. **

**The traitors would probably pry to find out who Red really is, but whether or not they succeed remains to be seen. **

**And Cynthia would definitely find out Ash's secret by the next chapter, latest chapter 4. Tell me when you want the secret to be revealed. She'll definitely have more spotlight next chapter. I'm also sorry that she didn't have much lines in this chapter. I'll do better in the next, I promise. **

**The Pokémon Ash has would definitely have more spotlight next chapter too, and have lines. I'm sorry that they didn't have any lines (except Mew), because the only time all Ash's Pokémon were out were during mealtimes, so I'll do my best to have a scene where Ash is training all of them or something during lunch break next chapter. I sincerely apologize for this part. **

**Yes, this is definitely Ash x Cynthia story. I'm not going for Harem because I'm never good at writing those. Whether the other PAL Elite members get love interests remains to be seen, though you are welcome to give me suggestions to who the Elites should have as love interests. **

**Yeah, as usual, mysterypink98 wants me to post this, but I'm really unsure about posting it, since I wrote everything. So, I'm posting it for her, and for those who liked the first chapter, because I'm too embarrassed about my writing skills. **

**I wonder if I should have Ash's (formerly Dawn's) Buneary outside her Pokeball in the next chapter, and if I should make them a couple. I mean, in the games, Buneary and Pikachu are both in the Field Egg Group, and therefore they can breed. Tell me what you readers think! And sorry for her for not having any spotlight so far, since Ash keeps her inside her Pokeball so that Dawn doesn't see her with him, but Pakura and Phillip may have just raised the traitor's suspicions that they have their Pokémon (albeit by accident). **

**Any questions, just drop me a PM. **

**I wish all my dear readers a Merry Christmas! As a gift, I made a new cover page featuring the PAL Elite members. Please tell me what you guys think of it.**

**I know this chapter is pretty bad, and I think so too, but….**

**Please review! I love to know what you think.**


	3. Prophecy, old friend, exposed, Date?

**BP: Thanks for all the reviews and favourites and follows! I hope to get even more this chapter. I hope my dear readers can also give me suggestions to how I can write the next chapter, I value my readers' opinions. **

For the PAL Elite there are other problems, besides the traitors planning to follow them and take their Pokémon. The number one fear of all celebrities.

The paparazzi.

Now why are they the number one fear? The reason is simple. They follow you around, taking your pictures without permission, asking incessant questions, and use all means to find any information about you, and post it on the newspaper of magazine. Basically, with paparazzi around, you have zero privacy, because they will never give you that.

Which explains why all of them (sans Pakura) are running towards the Battle Tower, where they will be safe, chased after by paparazzi shouting questions to them, especially Ash, since he's considered to be the most mysterious Elite, alongside Pakura. Pikachu is struggling to get a grip on Ash's shoulder, and Lucario is trying to catch up to Ash's speed.

Phillip fell behind to use his power to disable all the electronic devices carried by the paparazzi. One of Phillip's abilities is to activate and deactivate various mechanisms, both electronic and biological within a certain radius. Within the radius, he can select specifically which devices to activate or deactivate, which in this case, he's selecting to deactivate the reporters' cameras and microphones.

While they were distracted by trying to figure out what's wrong with their equipment, the PAL Elites took a run for the doors, and they quickly closed the Tower doors in the paparazzi's faces with the combined efforts of Rosaline and Ash's telekinesis. They were sure they had shaken the reporters off, since they had given up staking out the Tower, due to the fact that in the past, Pakura and the other three Elites would constantly water-balloon bomb them from above as a game. They have gotten soaked one too many times with Pakura's expert aim.

"That was definitely close." Phillip gave a sigh of relief, clutching to his Emolga.

"Indeed." Ash muttered. Pikachu is regaining his balance on Ash's shoulder.

"**The other region reporters must have come over to cover the Pokémon World Championship, the biggest event of the year, that's why they are chasing us, since you are the host region's Elite Four." **Lucario said.

"You could be right." Ash mumbled. "Jude, would you do a quick check upstairs if there's anything for us?"

Jude nodded. "Yeah, sure." He went up the elevator alone, while the others waited downstairs.

(10 minutes later)

"That's weird. What's taking him so long?" Ash asked. "I only said to do a quick check."

"I think something happened to him. Let's go." Phillip suggested.

They went up the elevator, and entered their quarters, only to find that it is empty, except for the huge pile of letters in the sitting room. Jude's Purrloin is sitting near the letters, looking at the pile in concern.

"**Are you ok, Jude?" **Purrloin asked.

"Jude, where are you?" Rosaline shouted, since he had to be somewhere near the pile.

"Over here." A muffled voice was heard from under the pile of envelopes.

"He's buried under the pile of letters!" Phillip covered his mouth to stifle his laughter.

"Very funny Phillip." Jude said from under the letters. "Get me out of here!"

It took both Ash and Rosaline's telekinesis to get the pile of letters off Jude, shortly after the elevator dinged and Pakura stepped in the quarters. Apparently, her stylist let her off for lunch break. She watched impassively as Rosaline and Ash finally got all the letters off Jude.

Jude got up from the carpet and dusted himself off. "Yup, as usual, we have fan mail."

* * *

><p>'Hmm….it looks like Red went up the elevator. But why would he send Jude up first to check if there's anything for them?' Cynthia thought, pacing the lobby. 'Come on, Cynthia, think.' She thought back on them running from the paparazzi, and Red asking Jude to go up to check if there's anything for them.<p>

'Now why would he send Jude alone instead of going up together? Are they afraid of something? If so, what?' Cynthia eliminated the possibilities of pests since the penthouse is one of the cleanest places she's been in. 'Could it be connected to the paparazzi chasing them around?'

Cynthia remembered that each PAL Elite is famous for something else, other than being Elites, which of course led to more fame, and more fans….

That's it! Cynthia finally figured out there might be fan mail for the PAL Elites, and they send one up because they don't want to be 'attacked by mail'. Better one than all of them, and most likely, they'll check the mail out first before doing anything else.

Knowing fan girls who often sell themselves short just to get their idols' attention, they'll send pictures of themselves, and may send ones that make them sick, thus it may deter them from lunch, and hopefully, do something else during the lunch break, and eat later. Hopefully some of them would come down to do their stuff.

And maybe Red would be one of them.

She'll just have to wait and see.

* * *

><p>Pakura threw the last envelope to the ones with Phillip's name on it.<p>

"Ok, I sorted them." She told the other Elites, pointing to the five different piles. "Just look for the ones with your name on it."

"Thanks, Pakura. Er…whose is this?" Ash asked, pointing at one of the envelope piles that had actually reached the ceiling.

"Oh, that's mine." Pakura waved dismissively.

"Well, you are the most popular Elite." Jude replied, with a hint of envy in his voice.

"Isn't surprising, is it? After all, she's the Princess. She practically rules PAL." Rosaline said, earning herself a glare from Pakura.

"It's just a nickname." Pakura said darkly.

"Not to the public. They think you are really PAL's Princess." Rosaline chirped. Pakura gave her a look that clearly told her to shut up or she'll really get it.

Ash shrugged, before going to the pile with his name on it, and started looking through his letters. There were a few creepy ones from fangirls proposing marriage, some requesting to take off his hood, and some sincere ones as well. Some also attached pictures of themselves along with the letters. A few made Ash blush, and he hastily closed his eyes and stuffed them back to the envelopes. How could the girls sell their dignity like this! Pikachu and Lucario looked away as well, whistling innocently. Ash gave them a mock glare.

Phillip sighed, and placed his hands on Ash's head, manipulating his brain electrical signals so that it erased the images from his memories. Even when the memories are erased, he still had this nauseous look on his face, though it was mixed with a look of gratitude.

"Happens all the time, Ash." Phillip said, looking at his face. "The way you act, it's as if it's the first time you opened fan mail." Emolga giggled beside him.

"Well…." Ash stuttered. He daren't tell Phillip that back at the Plateau, he made Pakura handle all his mail, while he did his paperwork, so it IS the first time he's opening fan mail. Said person must've known it too, for she shot him a sharp look, before turning back to her pile of fan mail. Ash noticed that her mail included job offers from modelling agencies and various nightclubs as well, which she didn't even look at. Sylveon was helping her straighten out her unwanted mail, while Skitty is playing around with the discarded mail.

"It's the usual stuff." Rosaline sighed. "You thought by now they'd know we don't do dates with fans or strangers." She watched Espeon use Psychic to put the unwanted mail into a neat stack with mild interest.

Ash couldn't help but think that Grimsley, the Unova Elite member, couldn't seem to take his eyes off Rosaline during the tag battle, but Rosaline was too focused on the battle to notice, and made a bet that he'll ask her out by the next day.

"Well." Jude said, carrying the unwanted envelopes in his arms. "Let's throw the unwanted mail into the fireplace."

"Yeah, sure." Ash replied absent-mindedly. They placed the unwanted mail into the fireplace, and Ash nodded to Rosaline.

"You know what to do." He said, as she shot flames from her hands into the fireplace. To make sure the fire doesn't get too big or the smoke doesn't engulf them, Ash placed a psychic barrier in front of the fireplace.

"I lose my appetite looking skimming through all those pictures from fan mail." Jude sighed. "We should've eaten lunch before we did that."

"Not exactly." Phillip remarked dryly. "If we did, what we really think may end up all over the carpet."

"True." Ash said. "Let's just do our own stuff to get our mind off that, and then have lunch."

Pakura nodded. "Yeah, I got lots to do anyway." She then left for the elevator with Sylveon and Skitty.

"I'll just work on my new invention at the rooftop garden. See you." Phillip mumbled, leaving to his room with Emolga.

"I'm going to draw a few pictures, and work on the Legendary Dragon Duo's case while I'm at it." Rosaline left for her room as well, with her Espeon.

Jude mentioned something about running his Connoisseur shop, and took Purrloin with him, which left Ash to decide that he'll have a downstairs Pokémon lunch and training.

He grabbed the Pokémon food and all his Pokéballs, and went down via the elevator with Pikachu and Lucario.

Unbeknownst to him, he was being followed by a Sinnoh Champion, who was patiently waiting downstairs for him ever since he went up the elevator.

'I know you are hiding something, Red.' Cynthia thought. 'And I will find out what it is.'

* * *

><p>Unaware of his new follower, Ash went out into the garden that is leading to the forest.<p>

"It's a nice day, isn't it, Pikachu, Lucario?" Ash asked.

"**Definitely." **Pikachu replied, while Lucario merely nodded. Just as they responded, he heard a rustling noise above them.

Ash suddenly stopped. "Did you hear that?" Despite the rustling noise being soft, he can hear it with his enhanced hearing.

Pikachu and Lucario nodded. Since Pokémon has more sensitive hearing than humans, he can detect the noise as well.

"Do you want to check it out?"

"**Can't hurt, can it?" **Lucario shrugged. **"Besides, we can defend ourselves, if there's any danger to the noise." **

Ash walked to the tree, where he thought the noise was coming from, and started climbing up to investigate the source of the noise, Lucario waiting below the tree. Perhaps it was just a wild Pokémon, but since the tree he is currently climbing on doesn't offer much concealment, it's highly unlikely.

Halfway through the climb, something heavy dropped on Ash's free shoulder, and Ash lost his grip and fell to the ground. He used telekinesis to slow down his fall, and stopped a foot from the ground. He then let himself down slowly, and landed on his feet softly, Pikachu clinging on the back of his shirt for dear life, Lucario ran over to him to make sure he's ok.

"What landed on me?" Ash groaned.

"**Hi, Ash, long time no see." **A familiar voice greeted them.

Ash widened his eyes. He knew that voice! He looked to the speaker, and sure enough, a purple, simian Pokémon with two tails, each with a large, rounded hand with three red-tipped fingers was grinning widely at him.

"**Ampibom! Long time no see!" **Pikachu waved at him. Lucario raised his eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, you two haven't been acquainted. Ambipom, this is Lucario. Lucario, this is my old friend from Hoenn and Sinnoh, Ambipom, before I traded him away to Dawn." Lucario frowned at the last word. Isn't she one of the traitors?

"**So, what are you doing here, Ambipom?" **Lucario enquired.

"**Oh, I'm done training with that O guy, and thought I'd go back to my trainer, but when I heard her talk bad about Ash, I knew I can't stay with her, because I don't even agree a single word that she said about you. I went off to try to find you, and heard gossip about the upcoming tournament in this PAL region, so I thought I'd head here and try to find you. And now, here I am!" **Ambipom replied cheerfully. By her aura, Ash knew she wasn't lying. **"So, how are you doing, Ash?" **

"I'm great. So, Ambipom, do you want to return to me?" He took out a Pokeball.

"**Definitely." **Ambipom jumped to Ash, and pressed the capture button herself. She was sucked in, and the Pokeball dinged without even shaking.

"I guess I just caught an Ambipom?" Ash announced uncertainly.

He let Ambipom out again. "Ambipom, we're going for lunch, do you wanna come along?"

"**Sure!" **

'Ambipom looked like it knew this trainer.' Cynthia thought. 'If only I can understand Pokéspeech.'

* * *

><p>Phillip went up a flight of stairs that lead to the roof. There's a small dome-shaped room with a door to the outside. He opened the door, and stepped to the rooftop, where they had built a garden with flower beds and potted trees. From tree branches hung hundreds of wind chimes.<p>

Emolga immediately went to examine the blossoms, while Phillip set down his equipment, and began working on his new invention.

"**What are you doing, Phillip?" **Emolga asked.

Phillip smiled shyly. "Well…..I'm going to build a new game stimulus, where it takes the user into a fighting game like Mortal Kombat. What moves they use against their opponents are entirely up to the user, no buttons controlled by people outside to get them to punch, kick or anything. The user have to execute the moves himself."

"**Really? What's its purpose?" **Emolga asked.

"Er…I figure that's a good way for trainers to practice to defend themselves should they face danger and they don't have any Pokémon. Of course, there are health points as well, and once the user's health become zero, he is simply brought back to the real world, without any injuries, of course, since the injuries they acquire in the game is not real. Unfortunately, only aura users could be able to activate this device, since the device depends on aura to run."

"Sounds like a cool device." A female voice said.

"It is, Emo- Ah!" Phillip turned to the source of the voice, thinking it's Emolga, only to see a strange girl with long brown hair and light brown eyes smiling down at him, and he screamed in fright, dropping the tool in his hand in the process.

The girl giggled. "You sure are easy to scare, Phillip."

"Who are you?" Phillip asked nervously. He hid his hand behind his back, charging electric sparks, ready to shock her at the wrong answer.

"My name is Jasmine. It's a pleasure to meet you." Jasmine held out a hand.

Phillip hesitated, before shaking hands with her after deactivating his sparks.

"You're a Gym Leader, aren't you?" Phillip asked.

"Very perspective. I'm Johto's Steel-type Gym Leader."

"Oh, ok." Phillip nodded, and turned back to his invention. Being a shy type, he isn't really one to initiate conversations, and preferred to keep to himself, although he's still considered more approachable and talkative than Pakura is. He hoped Jasmine would go when she sees that he's not very interested to have a conversation. Soon, he was absorbed into his work again.

He did not even notice that instead of leaving, Jasmine simply sat next to him, and watched him work.

* * *

><p>Ash squeezed through a secret tunnel located near the forest, and it lead him to a huge forest clearing. It's a place he had discovered years ago, when he was trying to hide from the press soon after he was crowned Champion. Since then, it had been a good place to train Pokémon in private. He wasn't aware that the Sinnoh Champion had also found out about the place since she was following him, and was currently going through the tunnel after him.<p>

He laid out the bowls for the Pokémon, and poured out Pokémon food for every single one of them, being careful to sort the bowls according to Pokémon type. Cynthia was behind a tree, watching the scene quietly.

"Alright, come out, everyone!" Ash used his telekinesis to throw all his Pokeballs up into the air, and they all opened, revealing all his Pokémon.

Cynthia gaped at the number of Legendaries that Champion Red owned. And why does some of his Pokémon look familiar like that Pikachu? Especially that Meloetta….could it be?

"**ASH!" **They shouted enthusiastically, some going to him for a hug.

"Yes, yes I miss spending time with you all too." Ash laughed, getting a hug from the more affectionate ones such as Meloetta, Manaphy, Meganium, Latias, Shaymin, Celebi, Victini and Mew.

"Papa!"Manaphy jumped onto Ash's arms.

"Hi, Manaphy. Great to see you too. I'm so sorry I've been busy." Ash hugged him to his chest closely.

"It's ok, Papa. I'm so glad I can spend time with you now."

"Everyone, I would like you to meet an old friend of mine, Ambipom!" Ash indicated the purple monkey-like Pokémon he caught a few minutes ago. "For those who do not know her, she was my Pokémon from Hoenn to Sinnoh and decided to return to us in our quest!"

"**Hi, everyone. As some of you may know, I'm Ambipom, and I just finished training with O. I didn't like what Dawn said about Ash, so I wandered around to find Ash, and arrived here since I heard about the tournament, and figured Ash would be there!" **Everyone, hearing this, welcomed her with open arms. Some that already knew her went over to chat with her.

"Alright, everyone, it's lunchtime, and we can train after you have dessert!" Ash announced, interrupting the reunion.

The Pokémon cheered, and rushed to their respective bowls.

"So, Ash, have you tried to figure out what I meant by being careful of the quiet one?" Mewtwo asked.

"No, I was a bit busy with my duties to notice, but I'll work on it when I have time." Ash replied, scratching his head.

"You better hurry. Everyone's lives may depend on whether you solve them or not." Mewtwo warned.

"I get it." Ash nodded, watching the other Pokémon eat their lunch, while having conversation.

After lunch, Ash served some Poképuffs for dessert, and the Pokémon enjoyed them immensely.

"**These Poképuffs are great as always, Ash!" **Latias commented. **"Was is Pakura who made these?"**

"Yeah. She had plenty of practice making Poffins and Pokéblocks for contest, so she's the best at making Poképuffs."

"**Give our thanks to her later." **Meloetta said, savouring the sweet flavour of the Poképuffs.

"**This is even better than the Poffins Dawn made!" **Shaymin remarked.** "I don't even need to release smoke through my mouth after swallowing." **

"**Agreed." **Celebi mumbled.

"**Yum…..Pakura sure knows what flavour Dragon types like us like." **Dialga said.

"**And she even made spicy ones for us Fire types!" **Infernape added. Charizard grunted in agreement.

"**Yummy! This is great!" **Ambipom exclaimed, this being her first time eating a Poképuff.

"Alright, everyone! Now that you finished your desserts, why don't we do some training?" Ash finally asked. All the Pokémon murmured their assent.

"Now, get in pairs and start training! Pretend you are a wild Pokémon and your partner is a Pokémon belonging to a trainer who is about to catch you. Fight with your instincts, and do not wait for me to command you to attack."

"**Why don't you take off your hood, Ash?" **Pikachu asked. **"Since we're alone now, and it's probably stuffy in that hood."**

"Yeah, you're right." Ash replied, raising his hand to pull down his hood.

Cynthia gulped in anticipation as Red slowly removed his hood, revealing his appearance.

Red's hair was slightly long at the back, and though the top had a spiky nature, it can be considered tame, with him having bangs long enough to cover his eyes brushed to the side. His face had a mature look to it, and was devoid of baby fats. He had beautiful dark brown eyes that had a tender look to it.

Cynthia gasped. She recognise this person. "Ash?" she whispered.

Unfortunately, Ash heard her gasp, and turned to her hiding place. He saw the tip of blonde hair just peeking out from the tree trunk.

"Oh no…" he whispered. He recognised this blonde hair.

"**Ash, we might be in trouble." **Lucario said.

Pikachu face palmed at his own stupidity to ask Ash to take off his hood.

* * *

><p>"Lance, do you know which direction is towards Aquamarine's Style?" Wallace asked.<p>

"How should I know, I'm not a PAL local." Lance replied. They were outside the Battle Arena, relaxing during a lunch break.

"Sorry, I'm just asking is because I need to go there to meet the other judges for the PAL Contest later." Wallace said.

"So, who are the other judges?" Lance enquired.

"Fantina and Pakura. Why?"

"Of course, that stuck-up bitch would have to be one of the judges. She's the World's Top Coordinator after all." Lance said sarcastically.

"Don't insult her, Lance. I think she's an extremely talented Coordinator. I mean, she's labelled as the youngest Legendary Coordinator in the world! And I don't think she's that bad. Besides, you better be careful what you say, Lance, you might end up wanting to date her."

"Yeah right. That'll happen when Grumpigs fly." Lance muttered, ignoring Wallace's warning.

"If you ask me, that Aerial Ace thing was your fault." said Wallace.

"My fault?" Lance asked incredulously. "How is it my fault that May's Munchlax dodged the attack?"

"Other than the fact that you didn't predict that Munchlax would dodge and may hit Jynx, since she's directly in front of it? She did say to watch where her Pokémon is before you call out an attack you know."

At that moment, Jude walked by with his Purrloin.

"Hi, Jude." Wallace smiled at him.

Jude grinned back. "Hi Wallace, hi Lance."

Lance nodded at Jude.

"Jude, could you tell me where the Aquamarine's Style is located?" Wallace asked him.

He pointed to one of the directions. "Go straight in that direction, and turn right. It's the biggest fashion boutique in the region, you shouldn't be able to miss it."

Wallace smiled in relief. "Thanks Jude."

"No prob. By the way, you guys might want to run right now, there's paparazzi coming this way 400m behind." With that, he quickly rushed off.

They hastily ran away from the spot they were talking at. "Wasn't it nice of him to give us a head start?"

Lance did not say anything, as he rushed for cover in the forest, while Wallace ran towards Aquamarine's Style.

* * *

><p>"This is all your fault, Max." May huffed. They are all currently in Pokémon Center rooms, and having their luggage tossed out of the Plaza Hotel (name of the hotel participants stay in PAL) didn't put the traitors in a good mood.<p>

"My fault?" Max protested. "I swear I placed the keys in my pocket, but it just disappeared!"

"Right, and Groudon can fly." May replied sarcastically.

"Break it up, both of you." Brock said. Both of them glared at each other, before looking away.

"I knew I shouldn't have opted out of the Battle Tower rooms!" Misty grumbled. "Now it's too late!"

"Never mind that now." Iris grumbled. "Not only do we need to keep an eye on those Elites, we also need to find out who stole our keys! I bet it's one of those Elites that did it."

"But why would the PAL Elites do anything to us? We haven't done anything to them." May replied.

"Something about their tastes are strange, and yet familiar at the same time." Cilan observed. "We'll have to get more information on them."

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with you." Trip said. "Let's go to the Library. I heard they got the biggest Library and lots of computers you can use for free."

"Sure." The others nodded, and headed to the library.

* * *

><p>"Back again, Lance?" Princess asked softly.<p>

Lance nodded, panting.

"What happened?" Princess raised her eyebrows, noticing his state.

"The paparazzi happened, that's what." Lance muttered.

"Why didn't you run to the Battle Tower? They aren't allowed at the Tower, you know." Princess enquired calmly.

"First instinct was to run here because there's protective power here." Lance shrugged. "Besides, I was nearer to the forest than the Tower."

"Sneaky. I like it." Princess smiled. "Send your Pokémon out. I'll see if the food is ready. Don't expect a gourmet meal." She left to another part of the cave.

Lance threw all his Pokeballs, and out came all his Pokémon. His Pokémon looked around, wondering where they are.

"If you are wondering where you are, you are at the Dragon Princess' cave." Lance answered. "It isn't an easy place to find, since only true Dragon users can see the cave, and even so, there is psychic power to compel them to ignore it."

"**Wait, Dragon Princess?" **Dragonite gaped. **"As in the strongest female Dragon user in the whole Pokémon World?" **

"That's right." said a voice. All of them turned to see the Princess setting down some food for herself and Lance, and set some bowls in front of the Pokémon. She then poured some Pokémon food in the bowls.

"**Oh My God, it's the Dragon Princess in the flesh!" **Charizard gasped. **"She has a powerful aura about her." **

"**She's beautiful!" **Altaria gushed, despite not being able to see Princess' eyes due to them being covered by her bangs.

"Thank you." Princess smiled at Altaria. Altaria blushed at her smile.

"You can understand what Pokémon is saying?" Lance asked, surprised.

"It isn't unusual." Princess admitted. "All PAL Elite members understand Pokespeech." Instead of going to eat, she gleefully examined every single one of Lance's Pokémon. She could almost taste the strong bond between Trainer and Pokémon, and she could hear the Pokémon's thoughts on how much they liked their current Trainer, and can sense their positive emotions directed at Lance.

She was so caught up with examining the Dragon Pokémon she didn't notice Lance inadvertently ate all the food on the table, until Haxorus exclaimed, **"Lance! You just ate all her food!" **

Princess turned to see the empty dishes. Lance gasped, realizing what he's done.

"I'm so sorry Princess. I was so engrossed in watching you check my Pokémon I ate all the food!" Why does he always seem to trouble the Princess?

"Nah, that's ok. I'm not very hungry anyway." Princess waved the apology off, as she poured some tea into a cup and drank.

Lance decided to ask the one question that is on his mind.

"So, Princess, what happened to the Prince?"

The reaction was instantaneous.

CRASH!

The porcelain cup she had been holding dropped to the hard floor, and it crashed into millions of pieces. The Princess had an utterly shocked and frightened look on her face (judging by the way her lips are positioned).

"Princess?" Lance tried to shake her out of her shock, but she seemed to be too absorbed in her own mind.

"I-I'll tell you tomorrow." The Princess sounded like she was near tears. "I need to be alone for now."

Lance gave her a sad look. He shouldn't have asked such a sensitive question. "I'm sorry, Princess."

"No, it's fine." Princess replied. "It's fine."

But Lance knew she was lying to make him feel better.

"Come back tomorrow?" Princess asked slightly hopefully, as he returned his Pokémon and turned to leave.

Lance nodded. "I will."

* * *

><p>"C-Cynthia, I can explain, I…" Ash tried to stutter at Cynthia who is staring at him, shellshock. A minute later, she ran at him, and threw her arms around him, and started to cry, mumbling something around the lines of 'don't leave me again', and 'I can't believe I found you.'<p>

To say Ash was surprised might be an understatement, since he wasn't expecting this; he was actually expecting a slap to the face, but this is definitely better than a slap. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her anyway. His Pokémon looked at each other, wondering what they are going to do with this situation. Manaphy, however, was more eager to listen in and find out if Cynthia would be her new Mama.

Ash finally manage to get Cynthia to finally stop crying, but he couldn't get her to let him go, so they had a conversation where they are now.

"Where were you all this time?" Cynthia whispered.

Ash sighed, and told her everything. How after he heard the conversation between his former friends, Trip and his mother, he decided to train by himself by getting all his Pokémon, and received a CommuniDex from Professor Oak, how his aura accumulated due to his emotions at his peak chose that timing to teleport him to an unknown region, how Pakura found him, took him in and told him more about PAL, how he caught new Pokémon, trained them along with his newly discovered abilities in the PAL Plateau by himself and fed his Pokémon healthy food and vitamins, and how they evolved, and finally, him taking the PAL Elite challenge two years ago, winning against Pakura, and becoming the first Champion.

He left out that part where he was selected as Chosen One and the Legendaries joining him on his quest, preferring to keep that a secret for now.

Cynthia finally let go of him. "That's…an overwhelming story…" she said in awe.

"It is. The thing is, Mewtwo" He nodded to the Genetic Pokémon, "told me the night of the opening ceremonies that the five leaders escaped from jail. They are coming for all five of us, so we agreed not to drag anyone else in." Ash sighed. "I thought by not telling you about my true identity, and as long as I act my part as Champion and stayed away you'd be safe. However, Pikachu wasn't very subtle." He smiled ruefully at the yellow mouse, who looked embarrassed.

"I'm glad he wasn't. Because if he was, I'll never find you." Cynthia said determinedly. "You know I'll never abandon you when there's danger. On the contrary, I'll stay with you. I say you grew up to be one fine man." She winked at him, making him blush.

"**Why aren't you asking her out to dinner?" **Pikachu hinted. **"She likes you, and you like her; I say go for it!" **

"**Yeah, I mean she went so far just to find you, she's a keeper, Ash." **Lucario encouraged. **"And she's been pining for you for so long." **

"Er…" Ash looked at the two of them nervously.

Cynthia was smiling at him expectantly. She was definitely going to enjoy this.

"Cynthia, would you….have dinner with me tonight? It'll be the two of us." Ash said this in a rush.

He expected Cynthia to reject him or something, but Cynthia kissed him on the cheek, and said, "I never thought you'd ask."

Ash smiled in both happiness and relief.

Things could only get better…..right?

"**I'm so happy for you, Ash!" **Meloetta was singing a happy tune.

"**This is the first time I've seen you truly happy, Ash." **Shaymin remarked. **"I'm so glad!" **

But Manaphy had another idea. He jumped into Cynthia's arms. Cynthia caught him, surprised, as he rubbed his head against her right shoulder in affection. "Mama!"Manaphy cried.

"So, Manaphy, you chose her as your new Mama?" Ash asked, smiling. He turned to a stunned Cynthia. "You see, May used to be Manaphy's motherly figure until she betrayed me, so Manaphy declared that May is not his Mama anymore. It looks to me he chose you as his new Mama!"

Cynthia smiled, and petted Manaphy. "Hello, Manaphy." She cooed at the Seafaring Pokémon, petting it softly. Manaphy seemed to be content in Cynthia's arms.

"Cynthia is my new Mama! Papa, are we going to be one big happy family?"Manaphy asked sweetly.

Cynthia and Ash looked at each other, before Ash turned back to Manaphy and said, "We'll see, Manpahy."

Manaphy clapped his hands in joy in Cynthia's arms.

* * *

><p>Rosaline had decided to head to the library for more information so that she could work on the Legendary Dragon Duo case. She is currently at the Old News section, pouring over back issues of <em>The PAL Times <em>(one of the newspapers in PAL), trying to figure out what exactly are the Dragon Prince and Princess real names, so she may get a lead, and find out more about their background. Or maybe she can find out what they look like, and match their faces to the citizens in PAL.

Imagine her surprise and disappointment, when she found the article about two people being crowned the Dragon Prince and Princess, but the Prince and Princess had their eyes covered by their fringe, which is impossible to determine their appearance, and this sentence: _The Dragon Prince has requested that their real names are to be kept secret, for their, especially the Dragon Princess', safety._

'But why would the Dragon Prince feel that the Dragon Princess needs her identity to be protected? Was she in danger?' Rosaline thought. She looked at the picture of the Duo again. The person who crowned them was Ken, the current announcer for the Pokémon World Championship.

'Maybe he knows something.' Rosaline thought. 'But he's not allowed to say anything. They even offered money that were up to six figures, but he still refused to talk, since he's not the type to sell his life story. I doubt he would help me in my case either. Gosh, this is one of the hardest cases I've ever seen!'

"**Why don't you use your mind reading powers on Ken?" **Espeon suggested.

"Espeon, you know I like the fun of solving the case without using psychic powers." Rosaline told her. "What fun is it when I only depend on my powers to solve cases?"

"**True." **Espeon nodded.

Rosaline sipped the strawberry smoothie she bought from the library café, and looked at the picture of the Duo. There wasn't much to look at since half their faces were mostly covered by the fringe.

"Look, what I know is that the Dragon Princess is still alive." Rosaline said to Espeon. "I don't know about the Dragon Prince though."

"**You mean the time you saw the Dragon Princess flying on her Dragonite that one time, and you tried to follow but she disappeared via teleportation?" **Espeon asked.

"That's the one" Rosaline nodded. "The Dragon Princess is pretty evasive."

She looked at the picture again reflectively. 'Could they have been people on the run before they became the Legendary Dragon Duo? Is that why they do not wish to disclose their real names to everyone but Ken?' Rosaline thought. That is a possibility. But the question is, what, or who, are they running away from? All the five evil teams have been shut down by Ash already, which earned him the nickname Silent Hero.

'Could the Princess have foreseen that the five bosses and their guards escaped? Is that why she was trying so hard to hide?' Rosaline wondered. The Duo, in addition to being Dragon masters, were also strong psychics themselves. Their psychic abilities are said to far exceed hers, and that's saying something, considering she is one of the strongest psychics in PAL, and she is talented enough to be accepted in the PAL Elite.

* * *

><p>"Alright, according to the information we got, Jude's a WaterDark, Rosaline's a Fire/Psychic, Phillip's an Electric/Steel, Pakura's a Fairy/Ice, and the Champion doesn't have any favoured type, right?" Trip consulted the notes he had taken down from the computer.

"That's right." said Cilan, looking at May and Dawn uneasily, since they were fuming from the information they read from Pakura's profile about being the number one Contest Star of PAL as she was a highly accomplished Coordinator, and Pakura never mentioned it. They bet they could beat her in a contest blindfolded, especially Dawn, since she did beat her mother, a Top Coordinator in a Contest battle before. Sure, it was an illusion caused by Mismagius, but still….

"Hey, aren't you sulking a bit too much?" Misty tried to pacify them.

"NO!" May and Dawn both shouted, causing those near them to ask them to keep quiet.

"Sorry…" They muttered insincerely.

"Anyway, which Pokémon of yours are missing again?" Cilan asked.

"My Blaziken, Skitty, and Glaceon." May spat.

"My Corsola." Misty added.

"My Pachirisu, Buneary, and Piplup." Dawn grumbled.

"My Emolga and Axew too." Iris replied.

Cilan nodded, and wrote it down. "Alright, assuming that each of them goes to the respective Elites with their type specialty, Blaziken would go to Rosaline, Glaceon would go to Pakura, Emolga and Pachirisu would go to Phillip, Piplup and Corsola would go to Jude, and the rest is probably with the Champion."

"But my Skitty is with that Pakura bitch." May cried.

"It could be because Skitty is either used for Contest purposes, or kept as a pet. Skitty is a popular pet Pokémon among trainers, after all." Cilan deduced. "She probably used her weakest Pokémon to combat you and Whitney, since I doubt she think you're worth her full strength."

"What did you say?!" May leapt up to strangle Cilan, but was restrained by Dawn, Max and Misty.

"Chill May. He's right. The PAL Elites are one of the most powerful trainers in existence. I don't think they'll use their full strength from the beginning." Misty said.

"But just to double confirm, I say we still try to keep an eye on those elusive Elites." Max suggested.

The others nodded assent.

"Hey, is that Rosaline over there?" Iris pointed to a figure at the Old News section a distance away.

"Alright, I found my target." said Max, starting to head towards Rosaline.

"Be careful, Max." May warned.

"I will." He said, following Rosaline as she left the library.

* * *

><p>Pakura was walking along the edge of the forest, on the way back to Aquamarine's Style, where she was supposed to meet Wallace and Fantina so that they can prepare together as judges of the PAL Contest. She had a lot of thought in her mind.<p>

When she first met that Dawn girl in Aquamarine's Style, her first impression is that she looked exactly like Princess Salvia. She knew Princess Salvia, since as PAL's "Princess", she had been invited to Arrowroot Town Palace for dinner a few times. However, Dawn's personality is so different from her. And not to mention, Dawn's a bitch. How did those two have the exact same appearance, she'll never know.

Speaking of which, she wondered why they couldn't just call her by her name instead of "Princess".

"**Let go….help…." **A faint voice interrupted her thoughts. It was coming from the direction of the forest and it seemed distant as well, as if the source of the voice is far away from her, but Pakura managed to pick it up with her excellent hearing. Pakura narrowed her eyes. It sounded feminine, so she thought the Pokémon must be female.

"I'm going to check it out." Pakura said. Her Pokémon nodded, and they went to the forest, with Sylveon and Skitty. Thanks to her superior speed (despite the fact that all Elite has enhanced speed, she is still faster than the other Elites), she managed to reach where she thought the voice was from.

She heard voices from her left, and headed for that direction.

"You see, Mike, this Eevee is rare and worth a lot! I mean, it's the only Pokémon that can evolve into eight different forms!" A man which stunk of cigarette smoke and had a bushy beard was holding on to a feebly struggling Eevee.

"Yeah, you may be right, Leon, PAL sure has loads of rare Pokémon, and we can just take them and sell them for money!" Mike commented. "Maybe we can catch another Legendary Pokémon before we go. It's so worth it sneaking abroad that ship to PAL!"

"Is it, really?" Pakura asked in a cold voice.

The two men turned, surprised to see a girl standing before them, and a beautiful one, at that.

Mike whistled, looking Pakura up and down. "Look what we have here! A hot chick! Come on baby, let's go back to my place and have some real fun!"

"Your clothing would look great on my bedroom floor, if you know what I mean." Leon winked. Pakura held back the urge to roll her eyes. She got that all the time from men, especially ones that are more than twice her age.

"**Yuck." **Sylveon was disgusted at how men always hit on her trainer. Skitty looked like she wanted nothing more than to barf on the poachers.

Mike approached her. "Come on, babe, let's-" Before he could say anything else, his throat was slit. The last thing he saw was Pakura with her hand covered in an icicle which is shaped like a sword. The sword was dripping with blood- his blood.

Leon panicked when his partner fell to the ground dead, and sent out a Pokémon. "Trubbish, use Sludge Bomb!"

"Skitty, Assist." Pakura countered calmly. Assist turned out to be Psychic, and Skitty threw Trubbish against the wall. It fainted easily.

'Weak.' Pakura thought, disdain clearly shown on her features.

Leon started to run, but Pakura shot an icicle out of her hand. It pierced through his heart from his back.

"You're….not…human…" Leon gasped, before he too fell dead.

Pakura picked up the near unconscious Eevee, and examined her. Her tiny body was full of bruises and bleeding cuts from struggling against the poachers, and burns from electrical traps. Pakura grimly noted that if her injuries are not treated in time, she might succumb to them eventually, but it's no problem for her. Pakura closed her eyes, and Eevee glowed in a blue aura, and slowly, the bruises and burns disappeared and the cuts stopped bleeding, and the cuts started to close. Very soon, Eevee was healed up completely.

"**Thank you!" **Eevee wagged her tail and looked at Pakura happily.

Pakura said nothing; instead, she carried Eevee to a part of PAL's natural paradise. It was a garden with clean water at the lake, and plenty of berries growing in bushes and trees. It was also filled with flowers of all kinds. There are several wild Pokémon playing in the garden. Eevee would be safe here, and be fed and watered for the rest of her life, and have plenty of playmates.

She put Eevee down, and while Eevee was distracted looking around at the beautiful place, she left without saying goodbye, and before Eevee could notice.

"**Why didn't you ask Eevee if she wanted to come along with you?" **Sylveon asked. **"And why didn't you say goodbye?" **

"She'll be better off there. Besides, that garden is the best place for her. I mean, she is free to roam around, and have fellow Pokémon to play with, and she won't starve or be thirsty, as opposed to training hard for battles or contests if she's with me. As for why I didn't say goodbye, it's because I doubt she'll stay if I didn't."

"**You're a nice person, aren't you?" **Skitty remarked.

Pakura hummed thoughtfully. "I wonder…" Is killing without hesitation for the sake of Pokémon considered nice? Some may call it inhumane, for one to take another's life, but what if the person's life that is taken did a crime that is unforgivable to PAL- Poaching Pokémon?

"_You're….not…human…"_

And ironically, she didn't regret it one bit.

"**We're here."** said Sylveon.

Pakura reached Aquamarine's Style, pushed open the doors and went in.

Unbeknownst to them, the same Eevee that Pakura left in the garden snuck through the doors before they closed.

* * *

><p>"Judging by the shining and smooth feathers your Unfezant has, you have been taking care of your Unfezant very well." Jude said to a boy who wanted him to evaluate his Unfezant's well-being and their relationship together. "And by the response your Unfezant gave me when I asked about you," Understanding Pokémon language is pretty advantageous when you're a Connoisseur. "He likes you very much, and you guys most likely have a long friendship, I bet you guys have been together for at least 5 years. Am I right?"<p>

"Wow, you're right, we've been together for nearly six years now." The boy replied, smiling. Except there was something wrong with the way he is smiling. His lips were curled up at the edges, but the smile didn't seem to go all the way to his eyes. It sort of stopped at his gums.

Jude frowned. "Something wrong?"

"No, nothing, it's just that…..there was this girl who wanted to evaluate my relationship with my Unfezant, but she said that my relationship with him was worst of the worst, and insisted I get another one. I don't know who I should listen to." The boy mumbled.

Jude narrowed his eyes. "Who is it?"

"It's some girl called Burgundy." The boy replied. "She said she's an expert in telling the relationship between trainers and Pokémon, since she's a Connoisseur too."

Jude tried to remember where he heard the name from.

"_Oh, Burgundy? She has a rivalry with Cilan, but if you ask me, it's one-sided on her part. She kept boasting that she's a great Connoisseur, but she doesn't know shit. When I first met her, she's pretending to be good enough to run her own Connoisseur shop, and she made me show her all her Pokémon, and she said all of them were horrible and I need to replace all of them, and seemed to want to replace them for me. She doesn't even have any reason to back up her claims. When asked about her rank, she's a C-Class Connoisseur, but she thinks that all professionals would say the same thing she did about my relationship with my Pokémon." Ash rolled his eyes at what he remembered about that girl. _

"_Sounds to me she's just a conceited little brat." Jude replied._

"_She is, alright." Ash nodded. _

Jude then realised she was mentioned when Ash told him about his travels in Unova. Back then, he was eager to hear Ash's stories as his hometown was Humilau City in Unova.

"Oh, that girl." Jude waved him off with disdain for Burgundy. "She's just a C-Class Connoisseur, a novice class, so why are you even listening to her? She's not allowed to open her own shop, and people from her class are only allowed to work as assistants to A-Class and above. Listen to me. I think your relationship with Unfezant is great. Don't let that wannabe's word get to you."

"Really?" The boy's smile was wide. "Thank you!"

Jude waved, as the boy returned his Unfezant to his Pokéball and left after paying Jude, which Jude reluctantly accepted.

Jude sighed. He had been dealing with a long line since lunch break, since besides offering a professional Connoisseur's service, he also runs a bookstore and café, the latter only built the beginning of this year since the café used to be a sweet shop next door that was ran by a family, but it shut down last year after an ancient water pipe burst in the ceiling, destroying all their stock.

The Elites had the idea of installing a café in the former sweet shop and knocking the wall between Jude's shop and the café down, which gave him more business. However, as far as running the shop goes, while he is good at physically making sales and running a service at the same time, he needed help in running the café, so he usually hired assistants to do it. However, he isn't very good at bookkeeping and bill paying, numbers not being his forte, which is why Pakura usually handled these things.

"**Tired, Jude?" **Purrloin asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Jude yawned. "What wouldn't I give just to go for a swim?" His last swim was interrupted by Ash's message to get his ass back to the Plateau because he got his invitation.

"**I'll go get some juice." **Purrloin scampered to the café to get a drink for Jude. She returned with a mango juice for Jude.

"Thanks, Purrloin." Jude took a sip. "How I hate arrogant people like that Burgundy girl." With that, he went out his shop for some fresh air, Purrloin following behind.

The first thing he noticed was that someone had set up a portable shop station somewhere next to his café. Jude heard voices inside the station, and approached closer to listen in, since there was a female voice shouting.

"You got to replace that Swablu!" the girl declared.

Jude opened the curtains to find a girl dressed in a long-sleeved pink shirt and over it was a red sleeveless shirt with four gold buttons at the stomach, a red bow at the collar, and black pants. She had purple hair with matching eyes, and had an arrogant look about her. A little girl was trembling at her voice, clutching to her Swablu.

"What are you doing?" Jude asked, interrupting the Connoisseur.

The girl turned to him, surprised.

"I'm just telling this girl that she is better off with a Swablu that has Natural Cure instead of Cloud Nine." The Connoisseur explained.

"Oh? And why is that so?" Jude asked.

"Well….it's because…..because….Are you doubting the words of a Connoisseur?" She demanded.

Jude smirked. This must be the Burgundy girl Ash was talking about. "Yes I am. Exactly what Class Connoisseur are you?"

"Er….I'm a C-Class. What about it?" Burgundy stuttered.

"Shows what you know." Jude turned to the little girl. "Listen, you go to my shop for now, and wait for me there. I'll evaluate it for you, if you like." He smiled at the girl. "My café is just next to this fake station."

The little girl nodded. "Thanks, mister!" With that, she left, and Burgundy lost her customer.

Jude then turned to Burgundy. "Listen here, in PAL, we don't appreciate fakes who pretend to be professionals. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, doing whatever you like in our region."

"And who are you to tell me what to do?" Burgundy asked.

"**Ignorant, isn't she?" **Purrloin asked. Jude nodded.

"It's for me to know, and for you to find out. One more time I catch you doing this, I won't hesitate to take your license. Now if you excuse me, I have a shop to run and customers to attend to." With that, he left, back to his shop.

When he returned, he attended to the little girl from earlier. Jude deduced that they had been together for two years, so their relationship is not very close yet, but by spending time and training it, she'll most likely have a great relationship with her Swablu in times to come. He also stated that her Swablu's Cloud Nine ability is useful as it negates the effect of weather attacks, thus Swablu wouldn't get damaged from them, and may lessen the damage of attacks that are strengthened by weather.

"And this is how you evaluate Pokémon." Jude concluded to Purrloin. "I wonder why they pay me for my services, though."

"**That's because you are one of the best. Your try your best to make the relationship between Pokémon and Trainer sound as good and close as possible, and give positive advices on how to improve the relationship. It also helps that you understand Pokémon language, and can ask the Pokémon what they think of their trainer, and you are honest, quoting the exact words the Pokémon said. That's why they pay you even though you never said they had to." **Purrloin answered.

"Well, if you say so." Jude smiled.

* * *

><p>Phillip Robinson is feeling rather embarrassed at the moment.<p>

Imagine him successfully finishing his invention, and being all satisfied about it, only that Jasmine girl is still there watching him. Phillip, unfortunately, didn't take it very well that she's still there, since he gave a startled shout, grabbed his invention, and ran back down to his floor, leaving her to stare after him, stunned.

"That was embarrassing." Phillip sighed.

"**Indeed." **Emolga replied, giggling at the way Phillip reacted earlier.

"But why was she still there watching me? I thought she'd have left by now."

"**Beats me." **Emolga shrugged.

"Well, it wasn't as embarrassing as Rosaline seeing me in just my boxer shorts while I was getting breakfast the day after she was named as the newest Elite." Phillip shuddered at the memory. That time, he had forgotten that there are now girls in the Elite, and he can't just go get breakfast without getting dressed from then on. Jude still had a great laugh about it.

"**I'd say you need to go out a bit. You deserve a break after making that invention and the shock of Jasmine watching you. How about we go watch the PAL Contest?" **Emolga suggested.

"Well, I'm bored, so yeah, I'll go." Phillip shrugged, as he pressed the elevator, and waited for it to come up to his floor.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Rosaline." <strong>Espeon said. **"We're being monitored."**

"I know." Rosaline replied. "You're talking about the kid following me right?"

"**Yeah." **

"I rather not let him catch me using my powers." Rosaline said to Espeon. She teleported behind Max, which confused him since she suddenly disappeared, and looked around for her, not knowing she was behind him.

Rosaline sent out her Munna. "Munna, hypnosis!" Before Max could react, Munna's eyes glowed eyes glow light blue and Max fell asleep. Rosaline walked over to the sleeping Max, and touched his forehead, and activated her ability.

"**So, what kind of dream did you give him?" **Munna asked.

"It's a dream where his father Norman found out about his betrayal to Ash and getting a really huge and long scolding, which would end with him telling his son that he is getting grounded and he won't be able to go on his Pokémon journey." Rosaline chuckled. "He won't wake up until the dream is over." Rosaline caught Munna looking at her hopefully. "And no, Munna, you're not allowed to use Dream Eater on him, you'll ruin my ability."

"**Awww…" **Munna was disappointed.

"But you can eat one of these." Rosaline offered Munna a Poképuff, which Munna ate with delight.

"**Yummy!" **Munna commented with joy.

Rosaline's hand suddenly jerked towards her pen and an old piece of paper in her pocket, and her arm unconsciously wrote down something, glowing in aura all the while.

"**Rosaline, your prophecy making ability has shown itself again." **

"Yeah, I wonder why." Her ability of prophecy construction only shows itself once in a blue moon, and only when there's extreme danger coming closer, ones that may mean their lives or deaths.

Just then, her hand stopped glowing, and they read what she had written.

_The Danger is quiet  
>Silent and tranquil<br>Moving in silently for the kill  
>On their own free will<br>Abused by evil, abused by society  
>They are quietly shutting everyone out<br>With their Heart full of doubt  
>The quiet one is seeking revenge<br>For all that they had done  
>Acting on their emotions<br>Hiding their deadly secrets  
>The quiet one sought to let everyone feel their pain<br>Never caring if there's no gain_  
><em>Anger and hate takes over <em>  
><em>All because of a lost Lover. <em>

"I better tell Ash." She quickly sent a message to the Champion.

"**We can worry about the poem you wrote later. For now, why don't we go to the PAL Contest to watch Pakura?" **Espeon suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Rosaline exclaimed.

* * *

><p>"Wow, Ash, my Pokémon loves these Poképuffs. Who made this?" Cynthia asked, examining a pink Poképuff. Her Pokémon were at the background devouring the cake-like confections, enjoying every single bite of it.<em><br>_

"Pakura did. She's pretty good at making Pokéblocks and Poffins as well." Ash replied. "I'm glad your Pokémon liked it."

"It'll be nice if you can get Pakura to make more of these for my Pokémon." She commented, as the Poképuff on her hand got snatched up and eaten by her Glaceon.

Ash smiled, and turned to Pikachu, who was being hugged and kissed on the cheek by Buneary. Ash laughed as Pikachu seemed contented by Buneary's affections, and he isn't exactly in the Attract status often seen in battles. They had become close over the four years since Buneary left Dawn to join him, and Pikachu, like the good big brother, cared for her during that time, where Buneary felt rather left out among Ash's Pokémon, since she was the only defected one to stay with Ash, while the rest became close to the other Elites. Apparently, the friendship eventually became love.

"So, buddy, when can I expect eggs to come?" He asked teasingly, earning a blush from the Pokémon.

"**Hopefully soon, Ash." **Buneary replied happily.

"Wow, look at this, Ash." Cynthia pointed to her Glaceon, who is trying to get his Glaceon's attention, only his Glaceon doesn't seem to be interested.

"Don't worry about my Glaceon, she always had an icy personality. Fits her type rather well, doesn't it?" He watched as his Glaceon continued to ignore Cynthia's Glaceon, only her Glaceon was rather persistent.

"Hopefully my Glaceon can warm yours up." Cynthia indicated to the two Glaceons

Ash gave a stiff grin. "Maybe." He watched as his Glaceon used Ice Beam Cynthia's, but her Glaceon doesn't seem in the least daunted, and followed his Glaceon around. His Glaceon is trying to ignore her Glaceon, and judging by the words Cynthia's Glaceon said, it's apparent he has fallen for her.

Just then, his CommuniDex signalled a message from Rosaline. He opened it, read the message, and gasped.

"What's wrong, Ash?" Cynthia asked, concerned.

Ash showed her the picture of the prophecy, explaining Rosaline's gift to tell the future by writing poetry down unconsciously.

"What does this mean?" Cynthia asked, frightened.

"It means the PAL Elites are in danger." Ash replied grimly.

"**Is it more than one person?" **Pikachu asked.

"No, it's one person only." Pikachu, Lucario and Cynthia blinked at him. "Look at this line: They are quietly shutting everyone out, with their Heart full of doubt. Heart, not hearts. It's written as they because the person's gender is unknown and thus the ability used 'they' to describe gender neutrality. Whoever this person is probably the one causing those mysteries. If we can find out who this is and why, it's most likely we can put an end to this!"

Cynthia looked at him in admiration. Ash clearly isn't as dense as four years ago.

Lucario coughed. **"Ash, isn't the PAL Contest thing starting soon?" **

Ash jumped up. "Oh yeah, you're right! We'll talk about this later! Come on, guys!" they returned their Pokémon, and Ash offered his hand to Cynthia, which she accepted, and Ash teleported them outside Aquamarine's Style, which is located near the Contest Hall.

* * *

><p>"All done, Princess Pakura!" Aquamarine Alexandrite, owner of Aquamarine's Style and Pakura's personal designer and stylist cheerfully placed the last touches on Pakura's preparation.<p>

"Why can't you just call me Pakura?" she asked, irritated.

"Oh, you're as modest as usual, Princess Pakura! Just check yourself out in the mirror!" Aquamarine gushed.

Pakura checked herself out in the mirror. She was wearing the same dress that May had wanted, and her hair was pulled up into a bun with a strands of hair falling from it. She was also wearing a tiara on the side of her head with a Key Stone fixed into it, along with baby blue ballet flats.

Pakura nodded her thanks, and left the boutique with Skitty and Sylveon, and made her way to the Contest Hall, unaware of her little follower. She ignored the people waving to her, calling her "Princess". Arceus forbid they should just say Pakura. Sure, the other regional Elites and her fellow Elites call her Pakura, but the other regional Elites will go back to their regions after the tournament, and her fellow Elites also sometimes slipped up and called her "Princess". The worst part is, they really think she's PAL's Princess and sometimes, they call her "Princess Pakura" like her stylist. And when she tells them not to, they assume it's out of modesty.

Meanwhile, the Eevee that she left in the garden was peeking from behind a pillar, and smiling to herself. She imagined what it would be like to become her Pokémon, when suddenly, she was snatched up, and Eevee found herself face to face with a blond girl with green eyes.

"Aww. You're such a cutie!" The girl was smothering her. Eevee was struggling to get herself off the girl's grip.

"Alright. I've made up my mind. From today onwards, you're now my Pokémon!" she declared.

Eevee didn't like the idea, since she already decided she'll only become the black haired girl's Pokémon and promptly fired a shadow ball at the girl's face, causing her to fall and let go of her. Eevee quickly scampered away.

Hearing something, Pakura turned in time to see a light brown furry tail disappearing around the corner, away from a dazed girl.

"**Something wrong, Pakura?" **Sylveon asked.

"No, nothing." Pakura shook her head, and promptly turned back to head to the Contest Hall's entrance. She entered the Contest Hall lobby, and was greeted by the receptionist, and she entered the still-empty Contest Hall, where Wallace and Fantina were waiting.

"Pakura! How nice of you to join us!" Wallace greeted her.

"Hello, Pakura." Fantina welcomed her in her accent.

"Champion Wallace, Leader Fantina." Pakura nodded curtly.

"It's an honour to have an exhibition contest battle with you, Pakura. Let's do our best!" Wallace said.

"Whatever." Pakura replied absent-mindedly.

"The audience is going to arrive, we better take our places." Fantina said, looking at the approaching crowd.

The other two nodded, and took their places, not knowing that an Eevee was hiding at the side of the stage, watching one of the judges.

* * *

><p>"Well, well, looks like congratulations is in order." Jude looked at Ash and Cynthia's intertwined hands.<p>

"Thanks, Jude." Ash blushed.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, Ash?" Rosaline giggled.

"Everyone, this is Cynthia, Champion of Sinnoh region. Cynthia, meet the first member, Jude Harrison, second member, Rosaline Pyra, and the third member, Phillip Robinson. The last and the Leader of the Elite is one of the judges of the PAL Contest." Ash introduced them to each other.

Cynthia shook hands with each one of the PAL Elite members present.

"It's so nice to have a girlfriend for our Champion." Rosaline commented. "After all, he needs a special someone to make him happy in his life, since that incident four years ago."

"Yeah, really great." Phillip added, though he sounded slightly uncertain.

"Thank you." Cynthia smiled at them.

"Ok, celebrations aside, I need to tell you guy something." Ash's face looked serious.

"Yeah, what?" Jude raised his eyebrow.

"Rosaline's prophecy making ability showed up again." He showed the picture of the poem to the other three.

Phillip gasped. "So what does this mean?"

Ash grimaced. "It means that someone is after our lives."

* * *

><p>They found good seats at the front row, next to Jessie, James, and Meowth, who are apparently taking a break from all the matches.<p>

"Hey, Jessie, James. I knew you planned to go to a nightclub for your date last night. How did it go?" Ash greeted them, as they sat down next to them. "What's wrong?" he asked, seeing Jessie's pissed off expression the moment he mentioned the date.

"Nothing's wrong…but it's just that our date last night went horribly!" Jessie exclaimed.

"What happened?" Phillip enquired.

"The nightclub entertainment was horrible! Jess, you tell them what happened last night!"

"There were these two….what's the word to use….performers performing a parody of us!" Jessie fumed.

"Specifically us from our old days!" James added.

"And your point is?" Cynthia asked.

"They did a horrible parody of us!" Jessie and James shouted in unison.

"The one playing me, Mari, made me look abusive towards James and Meowth! Hey, I may have a vicious temper, but I would never try to abuse either of them!" Jessie said.

"The other one, Mami, made me seem like a…..like a…." James can't find the word to use.

"Ok we got your point." Rosaline interjected.

"They also screwed up some facts about us! For instance, they swapped our backgrounds around!" James wailed. "They also screwed up our motto!"

"What's the deal about that? You guys already quit Team Rocket, you're not going to use them ever again!" Ash raised his eyebrow.

"I know that! But it still pisses me off!" Jessie was hysterical.

"Anyway, that Mami guy also screwed up my laugh too!"

By then, all the Pokémon that is outside the Pokéballs were laughing their heads off at Jessie and James' story.

Just then, Tracey interrupted. "Wait, did you just say Mari and Mami?"

"Yeah, why?" James asked miserably.

"Oh, those two. I know them personally. They are originally from the Orange Islands, though how they came here is a mystery to me. Probably snuck on a train or plane here or something. Anyway, those two are so egoistic and delusional they think their false perceptions of themselves are real. Their biggest dream is to become a fashion designer, and design everyone's clothes despite their bad drawing and horrible fashion sense."

"I certainly wouldn't wear the clothes they design for me." Rosaline shuddered.

"Oh and one more thing. They are totally in love with one of the male Champions, though I don't know who. Let's hope they never meet." Tracey shuddered. "I hate to see what would happen to that Champion."

"Shhh, guys, the Contest is starting." Jude said, as a woman in a gorgeous pink dress that exposed her legs in front, and reached to the floor at the back, walked out onto the middle of the Contest arena. Her hair was in a ponytail decorated with elegant hairpins.

"Welcome, everyone, to the PAL's Contest of the Year. My name is Aetna and I will be this PAL Contest's host!" There were cheering and clapping from the audience.

"Many Coordinators from all over the region come and compete for PAL's Special Ribbon, where it can be used as a ticket to the Grand Festival, no matter how many Ribbons you have, and it's only offered once every five years." She held up a dark blue silk Ribbon which is inlaid with gold, and in the middle was what looked like a crafted flower, to audience's delight.

"Please welcome the three judges: Gym Leader Fantina from Sinnoh, Champion Wallace from Hoenn, and Princess Pakura from PAL itself!" the three of them walked out onto the Contest battlefield, and to the judge's stand.

"And now, to open the Contest, Champion Wallace and Princess Pakura would have an exhibition Contest match!"

Ash and the others leaned forward in their seats, eager to see how Wallace would fare against Pakura.

* * *

><p>"Milotic, Luvdisc, on stage!" Wallace threw his Pokéballs into the air. For Luvdisc, it opened with big pink hearts surrounding it, and becoming one big heart before dispersing into pink sparkles while it levitated itself gracefully. Milotic's opened with many blue bubbles flying away from the Pokéball, and she landed on the ground with the bubbles supporting it, before disappearing.<p>

"Togekiss, Skitty, time to shine!" Pakura threw her Pokéballs into the air, and both of them opened with pink and purple petals surrounding them, before intertwining as they fall, and exploding in a blast of red fire, turning the petals into tiny confetti that fell to the ground, creating a beautiful effect. When the effect is over, Skitty and Togekiss can be seen on the battlefield.

"There is five minutes on the clock, battle begin!"

"Milotic, use Whirlpool. Luvdisc, use-" before Wallace could finish his command, Pakura already gave a command. "Togekiss, use Aura Sphere on Skitty. Skitty, use Double Edge, followed by Fake out!" The Aura Sphere mixed with the white aura of Double-Edge made Skitty glow blue, and when Skitty reached her opponents, she used Fake out on both Milotic and Luvdisc, and blue waves emitted from her hands, which hit both of them, dealing damage and making them flinch.

"Skitty, Assist, Togekiss, Shadow Ball, and use Dazzling Gleam." Assist turned out to be Iron Tail, and when the Shadow Ball hit the Iron Tail, it turned into a dark purple tornado, as Skitty spun the Shadow Ball with her tail. Togekiss used Dazzling Gleam to distract her opponents, and while they are distracted, Skitty fired the tornado Shadow Ball, hitting them, and exploding into purple sparkles.

With one and a half minutes past, Wallace had already lost 1/3 of his points, while Pakura lost none.

'She's fast at giving commands, and can react instantly the moment I open my mouth and give my commands.' Wallace thought. 'No wonder she hardly loses points during Contests.' "Milotic, Blizzard, Luvdisc, Sweet Kiss!"

"Skitty, Disarming voice, Togekiss, Flamethrower." The Disarming Voice managed to break the Sweet Kiss before it mixed with the Blizzard, and the Flamethrower went in between the pink ring lined with hearts of the Disarming Voice, and melted the Blizzard, turning it into water droplets that looked like sparkles. Furthermore, the hearts touched the flamethrower, turning it into flaming hearts, and hitting Milotic, exploding into orange glitter. Wallace lost more points for failing to perform a move and being hit by the opponent. He realised half his points were already lost, and there's only two minutes left to the clock.

Meanwhile, the Eevee from earlier was watching the match in admiration. If only she can perform beautiful moves like these too!

"Skitty, use Assist again, Togekiss, Aura Sphere." Assist turned out to be Moonblast and it mixed with the Aura Sphere, hurtling towards Wallace's Pokémon.

"Milotic, Luvdisc, dodge, and use double Ice Beam!"

As they both levitated into the air to avoid the pink-blue sphere and charge an Ice Beam, Pakura gave another command. "Skitty, jump on Milotic!" Skitty used her tail to spring on Milotic, who struggled to get the small Pokémon off it, misfiring the Ice Beam.

"Luvdisc, quickly aim Ice Beam on Skitty!" As Luvdisc took aim, Pakura gave another order.

"Togekiss, Fairy Wind to manoeuvre the sphere." Togekiss controlled the Moonblast-Aura Sphere attack, and hit Luvdisc, who fell towards the ground, and caused the Ice Beam to miss its target, and Pakura got Skitty to use Thunder on Milotic. Milotic took direct damage, causing Wallace to lose more points as a result of the misfired Ice Beams and the damage taken by Milotic.

"There is one minute left on the clock, folks!" Aetna announced.

"Milotic, use Attract, Luvdisc, Hidden Power!" Milotic winked, and pink hearts flew out, while Luvdisc used Hidden Power to try and make the hearts glow blue.

A split second later, Pakura also gave her command. "Togekiss, use Yawn." The Yawn bubbles was headed towards Milotic.

"Milotic, Safeguard!" Milotic used Safeguard to protect itself from the Yawn.

"A mistake, Wallace. I wasn't aiming for Milotic."

"What?"

"Togekiss, use Fairy Wind on the bubbles."

Togekiss sent the Yawn bubbles towards Luvdisc and the Yawn bubbles popped into Luvdisc's face, and it started to feel sleepy. Luvdisc fired the Hidden Power, but missed the Hearts. Soon, it fell asleep.

"Togekiss, use Aerial Ace. Skitty, Assist."

Assist turned out to be Psybeam, and it hits Togekiss as she uses Aerial Ace, and Togekiss glowed in a rainbow aura that hit Luvdisc as it fell towards the ground, asleep.

Eevee was at the side admiring the beautiful moves Pakura has executed during the exhibition match.

"30 seconds left on the clock!" Aetna announced.

"Milotic, use Twister on Togekiss!"

"Togekiss, use Psychic to return it back to its owner. Skitty, use Wake-up Slap on Luvdisc." While it dealt double damage, Luvdisc also woke up. Milotic was hit with its own Twister thanks to Psychic.

"Milotic, use Scald once more! Luvdisc, Toxic!" Scald and Toxic mixed to become one purple boiling liquid.

"Skitty, Hyper Voice. Togekiss, Metronome." Metronome turned out to be Hyper Beam, and it dispersed into circular shockwaves that followed Hyper Voice. Both of them clashed, and exploded into orange and purple fireworks. Both of them lost points as a result.

It was kept like that until Aetna announced the time was up. Both of them looked over to the scoreboard, and while Wallace lost 2/3 of his points, Pakura only lost a few.

"And the winner is Princess Pakura!" Aetna said, and everyone cheered.

'She's as good as they say. Not even I can take 1/4 of her points from her.' Wallace thought. 'If anything, she lost at most 1/8 of it.'

Eevee's eyes was shining in admiration as she watched Pakura return her Togekiss, thank her for her hard work, and let Skitty hop onto her shoulder. Eevee looked on with slight envy. She wants to be that close to Pakura too.

* * *

><p>"Wow, she hardly lost any points. Can you believe it?" Rosaline exclaimed. "It's so worth it to come just to watch this amazing display."<p>

"Yeah. Pakura's reaction time is way too fast for Wallace to catch up." Jude replied. "She is also able to ruin his combinations easily. I must say, it's a great performance!"

They watched as Wallace extended his hand for her to shake, and Pakura hesitated for a few seconds, before shaking his hand as well.

"You were awesome, Pakura!" Wallace said.

"Wallace, you too. Not many can take points away from me." Pakura replied.

'Hmm….now I think of it, Pakura doesn't like human contact. I wonder why….' Ash thought. He made a mental note to investigate this as well. He sighed. He has much more answers to find out than he thought.

"**Wow, she's stunning!" **Pikachu commented. **"This is the most beautiful display I've ever seen!" **

Just then, Phillip's Pokéball opened and out came Pachirisu.

"**She's definitely better than Johanna, Dawn's mum." **Pachirisu agreed. **"I bet in a Coordinating battle, Pakura would beat her by a mile!" **

"Pachirisu, you can stay out, but make sure the traitors don't see you. They are probably here for the Contest, especially your former owner." Phillip warned her.

"**Yes, sir!" **Pachirisu saluted.

* * *

><p>(With the traitors)<p>

"She must have cheated! There's no way she can defeat Wallace that badly!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Yeah, she made Wallace look like an amateur. There's no way anyone can beat the Hoenn Champion in Contests!" May said angrily. She also realized that the Elite's wearing the same dress that she wanted, which just made her more livid. First she stole her Skitty, and now she took the dress she wanted. What else would she take next? Her fans? May almost wanted to scream as the crowd was actually drooling over her, and calling her Princess. They should be showing their support to her! The Hoenn Princess!

"By the way, where's Max?" Cilan asked. "He left to follow Rosaline, and never came back!"

"Isn't Rosaline over there?" Iris enquired, pointing to a girl sitting at the front row at the other side of the Contest Hall who was chatting with her friends.

"Wait, if that is so, Max must be nearby." Misty said, scanning for Max, but he's nowhere to be found.

"Do you think something happened to him?" Brock suggested.

"Oh no!" May cried. "What if Rosaline did something to my precious little brother?"

"Don't worry, Trip and I will go look for him. You guys just do your best in the Contest, ok?" Brock offered.

"Ok, thanks, you guys." May nodded, as both left to go look for Max.

* * *

><p>Ash watched as Pakura yawned at most of the appeals. Those appeals are beautiful, yes, but they lacked originality, since he knew she had seen so many of those on TV before. Can't those people think up of their own ideas and not get some rip-off from a previous Contest?<p>

She actually fell asleep at Dawn's appeal, which consisted of Mamoswine using Ice Beam to make an ice structure, and Quilava would use Flame Wheel to ride along the ice beam's path, creating an ice slide. However, since Mamoswine is much heavier than Buneary, the Ice Slide actually broke when it is riding down.

"**This is getting old."** Pikachu commented. **"It's so similar to the appeal she used in the Sinnoh Grand Festival."**

Ash nodded. "I agree. Look, Paku's fallen asleep." They looked, and sure enough, Pakura had her head on her arms, with her eyes closed. That stance usually meant that Pakura was so bored she actually fell asleep. Wallace had to wake her up to tell her it's over so she can watch the next appeal.

Ash then noticed everyone was distracted with the Contest, and beckoned to Pikachu and Lucario.

"Guys, let's go, I'm going off to prepare for the date. I'm planning a nice show finale as well. I'm sorry you'll have to miss this."

"**Ok, sure." **Pikachu shrugged, hopping onto his shoulder.

"**Besides, we want to see what you have in store for her." **Lucario snickered, making Ash blush.

Ash took silent steps towards the door that lead to the lobby of the Contest Hall. Since he was at the end of the bench, it was easy for him to slip away unnoticed. Once he reached outside, he teleported to an unknown place.

* * *

><p>"Max? Max?" Trip was shaking an unconscious Max.<p>

When Max didn't wake up, he turned to Brock. "What happened to him?"

"I have no idea." Brock checked his pulse, and his temperature. It seemed to be normal. Who could have done this to him? Last he saw of Max until now, he had headed out to follow Rosaline, if that is so, this means Rosaline might have done this to make sure he doesn't follow her.

But the question is, how did she do it? Via Espeon? No, sleep inducing moves only lasts for so long, and Pokémon with Bad Dream Ability can only activate it on a target when it's out of the Pokeball, and the only Pokémon with that Ability is Darkrai. Rosaline is a Psychic specialist, so it's highly unlikely she owns a Darkrai. Unless Rosaline herself performed the Ability.

He shook his head, and gave Trip a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure Max just needs rest."

"If you say so."

But deep inside, he started to shake in fear, as he came to one conclusion.

The PAL Elite are no ordinary trainers.

Should he tell them to give up on following the other PAL Elites? No. It's highly unlikely the PAL Elite are actually allowed to kill them.

He never knew that if they continued, they would fall, one by one.

* * *

><p>"Cynthia? Isn't it time for your date with Ash?" Phillip enquired. Cynthia was distracted by the Appeals of the Contest Round, and chatting with the Elite at the same time.<p>

"Eeks! I forgot!" Cynthia jumped up, earning stares from the crowd. "I better go!" With that, she rushed out of the Contest Hall, preparing for her date.

"Hopefully, we bought enough time." Jude smirked.

"Yeah." Rosaline nodded in agreement. She turned back just in time to see Drew start his appeal.

Unbeknownst to them, Pakura had heard everything thanks to her good hearing. She suddenly had a splitting headache. Not the headaches people usually have from too much work, it's those headaches that renders her dizzy and unable to stand, and need to lie down.

"Are you alright, Pakura?" Wallace asked in concern, seeing Pakura grit her teeth slightly.

"I'm fine, Champion Wallace." Pakura replied. "I'm just fine."

**BP: A lot of explaining needs to be done again. (Pls read!) **

**I wanted to write what they did during lunch break, so all of them had a scene to themselves, but it ended up worse than Chapter 2. I know I'm going a bit too fast with the Ash x Cynthia thing, but my friend and I agreed it should happen in Chapter 3, and that's the only way I can think up of. **

**The reason why Cynthia caught Ash is while Ash is able to detect stalkers, that particular time, he turned off his psychic aura so that he doesn't hear voices in his head all the time. Also, he thought he was alone, since everybody (except his Elites) are probably eating lunch at the moment.**

**The scene between Jasmine and Phillip was thought up on a whim. It's meant to show that he's an awkward person. Pairings for Phillip, Jude and Pakura are still open, and you are welcome to give me suggestions. My friend had already decided the pairing for Rosaline already. **

**I liked Eevee, so I thought Pakura should rescue her, and she follows the Leader along. Should Pakura catch her or convince her to return to the garden? You can decide if you want. **

**The readers didn't say anything about the Dragon Princess scene, so I put it up, hope you guys don't kill me over this. **

**And uh, I decided since Ash has all of the Eeveelutions, I may as well pair his Glaceon with Cynthia's to signify their relationship. His Glaceon may play a bigger part in future chapters, who knows?**

**And the scene where I wanted the Legendaries to have more spotlight ended up backfiring? Well, I'm not sure, but I hope you guys like the way I write, because I'm all out of ideas, and this seemed to be the best out of the bad ideas I have. **

**Forgive me for my pessimisms, because I used to be an optimist until I got my self-esteem lowered horribly by those people you call bullies during my four years of high school. You wouldn't even want to know what they had done to me. **

**And don't worry, Ash would try to figure out the mysteries after the date. For now, he'll just have to let his hair down, and enjoy himself at the date. I mean, I doubt Cynthia likes a worrywart in her dates.**

**Mari and Mami are NOT used to mock anybody. In fact, I have no qualms of same-sex relationships. I mean, it's also considered love, so why not? It's based on a former friend that had hurt me and my friends feelings!**

**Since mysterypink98 is starting her final year in high school, she isn't able to give me a lot of ideas since she is busy with homework and studies, so I personally ask you dear readers to please give me ideas for my next chapter, so I can fulfil my 12,000 word quota for every chapter. Please, I beg of you all to help me with this one.**

**This is in honor of mysterypink98, who gives me courage to post this chapter. **

**Please give me even more reviews for this chapter. Please review! *gives puppy dog eyes* **

**So please, once again, give me suggestions for my next chapter. *gives watery puppy dog eyes***


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